skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Theoretical Investigation of the Hydrodeoxygenation of Levulinic Acid to γ-Valerolactone over Ru(0001)

Journal Article · · ACS Catalysis

The reaction mechanism of the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) has been investigated over a Ru(0001) model surface by a combination of plane-wave density functional theory (DFT) calculations and mean-field microkinetic modeling. Catalytic pathways involving the direct hydrogenation of LA to GVL with and without formation of the experimentally proposed 4-hydroxypentanoic acid (HPA) intermediate have been considered. In the low reaction temperature range of 323–373 K, the activity of the model Ru(0001) surface is low, owing to a very small number of free sites available for catalysis. As a result, it is unlikely that Ru(0001) is the active site for the experimentally observed catalysis at low temperatures. In contrast, in the medium- to high-temperature range (423–523 K), the HDO of LA is facile over Ru(0001) and we predict at 423 K a turnover frequency, apparent activation barrier, and forward reaction orders that are fairly close to prior experimental observations, leading us to suggest that Ru(0001) sites might constitute the active site for high-temperature catalysis. Finally, our microkinetic analysis suggests that the HDO of LA occurs by LA adsorption, hydrogenation of LA to an alkoxy intermediate, surface ring closure, and –OH group removal: i.e., it does not occur via HPA production as previously suggested. The first hydrogenation step of LA toward the formation of an alkoxy intermediate is the most rate controlling step over Ru(0001).

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0007167
OSTI ID:
1485140
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1656915
Journal Information:
ACS Catalysis, Vol. 7, Issue 1; ISSN 2155-5435
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 60 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (44)

Transformations of biomass-derived platform molecules: from high added-value chemicals to fuels via aqueous-phase processing journal January 2011
Chemicals from Biomass journal November 2007
Reaction Pathways of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates over Metals and Carbides: From Model Surfaces to Supported Catalysts journal March 2015
Computational Studies of the Thermochemistry for Conversion of Glucose to Levulinic Acid journal July 2010
Experimental and Theoretical Insights into the Hydrogen-Efficient Direct Hydrodeoxygenation Mechanism of Phenol over Ru/TiO 2 journal October 2015
Green Chemicals journal May 2006
Production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels by catalytic conversion of biomass-derived levulinic acid journal January 2011
Conversion of cellulose to hydrocarbon fuels by progressive removal of oxygen journal October 2010
Direct conversion of cellulose to levulinic acid and gamma-valerolactone using solid acid catalysts journal January 2013
Catalytic Conversion of Fructose to γ-Valerolactone in γ-Valerolactone journal September 2012
Prediction of the Thermodynamic Properties of Key Products and Intermediates from Biomass journal July 2011
Biogas as a Renewable Energy Source—A Review journal August 2009
Integrated Catalytic Conversion of γ-Valerolactone to Liquid Alkenes for Transportation Fuels journal February 2010
γ-Valerolactone—a sustainable liquid for energy and carbon-based chemicals journal January 2008
Catalytic upgrading of levulinic acid to 5-nonanone journal January 2010
Catalytic synthesis of α-methylene-γ-valerolactone: a biomass-derived acrylic monomer journal September 2004
High performing and stable supported nano-alloys for the catalytic hydrogenation of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone journal March 2015
Rational nanoparticle synthesis to determine the effects of size, support, and K dopant on Ru activity for levulinic acid hydrogenation to γ-valerolactone journal June 2015
Analysis of Kinetics and Reaction Pathways in the Aqueous-Phase Hydrogenation of Levulinic Acid To Form γ-Valerolactone over Ru/C journal March 2014
A first principles analysis of the hydrogenation of C1C4 aldehydes and ketones over Ru(0001) journal November 2012
Role of water in metal catalyst performance for ketone hydrogenation: a joint experimental and theoretical study on levulinic acid conversion into gamma-valerolactone journal January 2014
Ab initiomolecular dynamics for liquid metals journal January 1993
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Accurate and simple density functional for the electronic exchange energy: Generalized gradient approximation journal June 1986
Accurate and simple analytic representation of the electron-gas correlation energy journal June 1992
Energetics of Adsorbed Methanol and Methoxy on Pt(111) by Microcalorimetry journal December 2012
A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu journal April 2010
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
High-precision sampling for Brillouin-zone integration in metals journal August 1989
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
A dimer method for finding saddle points on high dimensional potential surfaces using only first derivatives journal October 1999
Efficient methods for finding transition states in chemical reactions: Comparison of improved dimer method and partitioned rational function optimization method journal December 2005
Comparison of methods for finding saddle points without knowledge of the final states journal November 2004
Optimization methods for finding minimum energy paths journal April 2008
Theoretical calculations of CH4 and H2 associative desorption from Ni(111): Could subsurface hydrogen play an important role? journal January 2006
Acid and Basic Catalysis. journal October 1928
Inertia and driving force of chemical reactions journal January 1938
BzzMath: Library Overview and Recent Advances in Numerical Methods book January 2012
Understanding Trends in Catalytic Activity: The Effect of Adsorbate–Adsorbate Interactions for CO Oxidation Over Transition Metals journal February 2010
Improved adsorption energetics within density-functional theory using revised Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functionals journal March 1999
Uncertainty Quantification Framework Applied to the Water–Gas Shift Reaction over Pt-Based Catalysts journal May 2016
Degree of Rate Control: How Much the Energies of Intermediates and Transition States Control Rates journal June 2009
Predicting Catalysis:  Understanding Ammonia Synthesis from First-Principles Calculations journal September 2006
Ammonia synthesis and decomposition on a Ru-based catalyst modeled by first-principles journal June 2009

Cited By (6)

Copper-based catalysts with tunable acidic and basic sites for the selective conversion of levulinic acid/ester to γ-valerolactone or 1,4-pentanediol journal January 2019
Mechanistic study of the ceria supported, re-catalyzed deoxydehydration of vicinal OH groups journal January 2018
Microwave Irradiation-Enhanced Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Levulinic Acid to γ-Valerolactone Using Ruthenium: A Comparative Study with Conventional Heating Processes journal February 2019
Selective hydroconversion of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone or 2-methyltetrahydrofuran over silica-supported cobalt catalysts journal January 2019
The Conversion of Jatropha Oil into Jet Fuel on NiMo/Al‐MCM‐41 Catalyst: Intrinsic Synergic Effects between Ni and Mo journal April 2019
Highly efficient hydrogenation of levulinic acid into 2-methyltetrahydrofuran over Ni–Cu/Al 2 O 3 –ZrO 2 bifunctional catalysts journal January 2019