Hokkaido University · Engineering
Professor Hirokazu Kobayashi's research lab specializes in sustainable catalysis and biomass conversion, focusing on the efficient transformation of abundant renewable resources—such as cellulose, chitin, and lignocellulosic biomass—into valuable chemicals and fuels. The lab develops innovative solid-solid catalytic systems using activated carbons and base metal catalysts (e.g., Ni/C) to achieve high selectivity and yield in reactions like glucose and hexitol production, while emphasizing catalyst durability and recyclability. A key innovation involves enhancing solid–solid interfacial contact through mechanical activation (e.g., ball-milling), enabling efficient depolymerization and functionalization of recalcitrant biomass. The lab also investigates reaction mechanisms using advanced spectroscopy and DFT calculations to guide rational catalyst design.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
High-yielding one-pot synthesis of glucose from cellulose and pentoses/hexoses from real biomass is achieved by using simple activated carbons and 0.012% HCl in water. Ball-milling cellulose and the carbon together created good physical contact between the solid substrate and solid catalyst before the reaction, selectively and drastically improving the depolymerization rate of cellulose to oligomers. Thus, our methodology overcomes a major obstacle in this type of reaction, namely, that the coll
The most abundant marine biomass, chitin, is converted to an amino sugar alcohol in 52% yield by a two-pot three-step reaction.
Efficient conversion of cellulose to sorbitol and mannitol by base metal catalysts is a challenge in green and sustainable chemistry, but typical supported base metal catalysts have not given good yields of hexitols or possessed durability. In this study, it has been demonstrated that a simple carbon-supported Ni catalyst affords up to 67% yield of hexitols in the conversion of cellulose, and that the catalyst is durable in the reuse experiments 7 times. In addition, the catalyst can be separate
Abstract The efficient catalytic conversion of lignocellulose is a formidable issue, but it is worth studying in terms of the high potential as renewable chemical feedstock. In this account, we describe our approach to convert solid cellulose with solid catalysts. We found that carbons bearing weak acid sites were active for the hydrolysis of cellulose. The catalyst produced glucose in up to 88% yield after the formation of good solid–solid contact, due to selective enhancement of the solid–soli
Partial oxidation of methane (POM) is a potential technology to increase the efficiency of synthesizing a mixture of CO and H2 called syngas, in comparison to steam reforming processes. Recently, supported metals modified with Re have emerged as active catalysts for POM. However, the role of Re in this reaction has been unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the addition of Re to a Ru/Al2O3 catalyst changes the reaction mechanism. The bimetallic catalyst oxidizes CH4 to mainly CO via formate. After
Chitin is the most abundant marine biomass, containing nitrogen atoms in its monomer units, N-acetylglucosamine (NAG). Thus, NAG is a potential feedstock for the production of renewable organonitrogen chemicals. Here, we report a synthetic pathway of a widely used standard amino acid in a protected form, acetylglycine (AcGly), from NAG via two steps: conversion of NAG to N-acetylmonoethanolamine (AMEA) and its transformation to AcGly. In the first step, a Ru/C catalyst converts NAG to AMEA in an
Carbon materials bearing carboxylic acids and phenolic groups efficiently catalyze the hydrolysis of cellulose. In this work, we demonstrate that salicylic acid and phthalic acid show higher activity than other substituted benzoic acids as models of catalytic sites on carbons in the hydrolysis of cellobiose and cellulose. Notably, their turnover frequencies are larger than those of o-chlorobenzoic acid and o-trifluoromethylbenzoic acid, despite their lower acid strength. The high catalytic perfo
3-Acetamido-5-acetylfuran (3A5AF) is a promising intermediate obtained from chitin for the production of N-containing value-added chemicals. However, the synthetic method is complicated so far, which has limited further investigation using 3A5AF. Herein, a facile method was developed for synthesizing 3A5AF from N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (NAG), including a simple isolation procedure. A 30 % yield of 3A5AF was obtained by performing the dehydration of NAG in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent in the
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