Carbon-based photocatalysts to produce solar fuels and chemicals from biomass-derived molecules

MATOS, J.; MONTAÑA, R.; GONCALVES, R.; SCHETTINO, M.; PASSAMANI, E.; FREITAS, J.:
Proceedings of the 5th Latin American Congress on Biorefineries – From laboratory to industrial practice, January 2019 pp18-21.

Introduction

Solar fuels produced from simple and abundant molecules are a promising strategy for the utilization of a renewable energy source such as sunlight. However, the efficiency of current photocatalysts is still low and far for the practical application. The H₂ production by direct water splitting and the CO₂ reduction are the two main reactions concerning with solar fuels. In this context, it has been widely showed that noble metal/graphene-based catalysts are suitable for these reactions. Another strategy for fuels production is the photo-assisted valorization of subproducts of the biorefinery and biodiesel industries (e.g., furfuryl alcohol, 5-hydroximethyl furfural, glycerol). The valorisation of these molecules through their chemical transformation into aldehydes or ketones is an important strategy to obtain valuable compounds such as five or six-member dioxane-based carbocycles. In this sense, the objective of this work is to explore a photocatalytic approach using carbon and copper-doped TiO₂-based catalysts for the valorization of furfuryl alcohol, 5-hydroximethyl furfural using solar light.