Title
Thermocatalytic conversion of spruce wood in water-ethanol mixtures with Ru/C catalyst
Authors
ALEKSANDR S. KAZACHENKO, SERGEY V. BARISHNIKOV, ANDREY M. SKRIPNIKOV, OLGA S. SELEZNEVA, VALENTIN V. SYCHEV and ANGELINA V. MIROSHNIKOVA

Received March 26, 2025
Published Volume 59 Issue 7-8 July-August
Keywords thermocatalytic conversion, spruce wood, Ru/C catalyst, water-ethanol mixtures, lignocellulose, reductive fractionation

Abstract
The study is devoted to the influence of the composition of the water-ethanol solvent on the process of thermocatalytic conversion of spruce wood using the bifunctional catalyst Ru/C. The experiments were carried out at different ratios of ethanol and water (95/5, 80/20, 50/50%) in an argon environment at a temperature of 225 °C and a pressure of 3.4–4.5 MPa. It was found that an increase in the proportion of water in the solvent to 50% leads to an increase in wood conversion from 49.5% to 67.4% in the presence of the Ru/C catalyst, and also contributes to obtaining a cellulose product with a minimum content of lignin (3.0%) and hemicelluloses (1.3%). The analysis of liquid products revealed an increase in the proportion of water-soluble oligosaccharides and a decrease in the yield of phenolic monomers when diluting ethanol with water. The results demonstrate the potential of using water-alcohol mixtures to optimize the processes of reductive catalytic fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass.