In Situ Prepared RuW/Biochar for Conversion of Carbohydrates to Ethylene Glycol

Converting cellulose to ethylene glycol has been widely reported, while glucose is seldomly used to produce ethylene glycol. This is challenging due to side reactions such as glucose hydrogenation and isomerization, which have lower activation barriers than retro-aldol condensation. Moreover, cellobiose, rather than glucose, is main intermediates in obtaining ethylene glycol from cellulose. In this study, we found that the in situ synthesized Ru x W y /biochar catalyst exhibited high activity for converting glucose to EG. The Ru 3.5 W 35 /biochar catalyst achieved the highest EG yield of 61.61% under optimized conditions of 200 °C, 3 MPa H 2 , and 3 h. Characterization techniques were employed, revealing the crucial roles of W 5+ and Ru metal states, which were affected by the calcination temperature. The Ru 3.5 W 35 /biochar catalyst calcinated at 400 °C exhibited the best performance and was subsequently applied for the conversion of starch, xylose, and sucrose with appreciable yields of ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol. Graphical Abstract