Chemo-Catalytic Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass into Marketable Products

Palestrante: Prof. Dr. Mark Mascal (University of California, Davis – Estados Unidos)

Abstract: 5-(Hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) is an icon of the green chemistry movement and considered a biobased platform molecule of exceptional promise. However, its production from any feedstock other than fructose is currently impractical and, due to its hydrophilicity, its isolation from reaction media is difficult. 5-(Chloromethyl)furfural (CMF), while functionally equivalent to HMF, is produced in high yield directly from raw biomass and is hydrophobic and thus easily extracted from aqueous media. CMF is derived from the treatment of cellulose with hydrochloric acid in a biphasic acid/solvent reactor under mild conditions on a timescale of minutes to hours, depending on the feedstock. Isolated yields are in the range of 70-90%. CMF will be presented as a viable alternative to HMF in all respects, including the extensive market reach of its derivatives, which include biofuels, renewable polymers, and industrial chemicals.

Short CV: Mark Mascal received his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of London, and has worked in the laboratories of two Nobel laureates. He started his academic in the United Kingdom, from which he moved to the US to take up a Visiting Professor of Chemistry position at UCLA in 2000. He was then appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UC Davis in 2003, advancing to Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor in 2011. He was named the 2012 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was a 2021 National Academies Jefferson Science Fellow in the US State Department. Most recently, he received a 2022 Environmental Protection Agency Green Chemistry Challenge Award. The major thrust of his research program is in the area of sustainable chemistry, specifically the upcycling of waste biomass into platform molecules that can be used to access a range of biofuels, renewable plastics, and green replacements for petrochemicals. He also has interests in conducting organic materials, pharmaceutical chemistry, computational modeling, and fundamental aspects of molecular structure. He is involved in startup companies spun off from intellectual property that originated in his lab in the areas of sustainable production of plastics, cardioprotective supplements, and therapies to combat refractory epilepsy. One of the companies that licenses technology from his lab, Origin Materials, has recently become the first publicly traded (NASDAQ: ORGN) carbon-negative materials company.

Prof. Responsável: Júlio Cezar Pastre