Research Projects

To support the ever-increasing population, a proportionate amount of energy and commodity chemicals is necessary. Most of the fuel and the majority of essential commodity chemicals are manufactured from fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, petroleum etc. Biomass is the most promising alternative to fossil fuels in producing carbon-based fuels, chemicals, and materials. Cellulose is the single largest component of renewable plant biomass, accounting for 35-50% of total renewable biomass, making it the dominant biopolymer in the plant-based biomass used for bioenergy, bioproducts, and green chemicals. Cellulose can be converted into a number of value-added chemicals such as furfural, polyols and organic acids. Hence, developing an economically viable method of converting cellulose into valuable platform chemicals is highly desirable. Formic acid, which is one of the important commodity chemicals frequently used in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and chemical industries. A number of heteropoly acid and a few metal salt-based catalysts for the conversion of cellulose in to formic acid are available in the literature. Unfortunately, most of the catalysts operate at relatively high temperatures, require high oxygen pressure, and have poor efficiency and selectivity. On the other hand, lactic acid, which is generally manufactured through the fermentation of sugars, is also extensively used in the food, chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. Lactic acid is one of the promising materials for producing biodegradable polymer polylactic acid. Several recent reports that described one spot conversion of cellulose into lactic acid operate at high reaction temperature. Some of the catalysts are toxic in nature, some only work with mono- or di- di-disaccharides, and some use a hazardous reaction medium. Poor product selectivity, long reaction time and efficiency are the additional drawbacks of the existing catalytic systems. Thus, the development of a single-step catalytic process that is effective towards cellulose and the mono- di- or oligo saccharides, along with high selectivity toward products and being environmentally friendly, that operates under moderate reaction conditions is urgently needed. A large number of vanadium(V) salts and heteropolyacids have been reported as promising catalysts for the conversion of cellulose into lactic acid or formic acid. Vanadium-based complexes have not been tested as a catalyst for conversion. An appropriate ligand system provides better electron control around the Metal centres, provides stability toward the slight change in geometry due to the change in oxidation state of the metal centre and can produce more selectivity in the products under moderate reaction conditions. Thus, these properties might help in the development of an efficient catalytic system for the conversion of cellulose.