Oxidative cleavage of unsaturated fatty acids on ferric spinels: exploring Fe3O4, CoFe2O4 and MnFe2O4 as promising heterogeneous catalysts in biomass valorisation

Details

Supervisors

Gaigneaux, Eric M. ; Gamez Rivera, Sebastian Antonio

Faculty

Faculté des bioingénieurs

Degree label

Master [120] : bioingénieur en chimie et bioindustries, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

To support the industrial transition from fossil oil to biosourced feedstocks, it is important to provide new biomass conversion routes as an alternative. Plant oils are for instance a naturally available source of long hydrocarbon chains. Among these fatty chains, unsaturated fatty acids can be reacted to produce useful molecules for the chemical industry. The most abundant unsaturated fatty acid in biomass is the oleic acid. Oxidative cleavage of its double bond yields the valuable azelaic and pelargonic acids, which are used in pharmaceuticals, polymers and herbicides. This cleavage reaction traditionally involves ozone, which is a dangerous and energy demanding species to work with. A new process is thus desired within the framework of green chemistry. Homogeneous catalytic processes have been proposed but these catalysts are costly and poorly reusable. Heterogeneous catalytic processes hardly reach comparable productivities with cheap metals and mild conditions. This thesis therefore explores a new catalyst in this field, the ferric spinels Fe3O4, CoFe2O4 and MnFe2O4. Those mixed oxides are made from cheap and available metals and are magnetically recoverable from a reaction medium. They have been synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method, characterized, and tested in the oxidative cleavage reaction.