Upgraded production of (1R,5S)-1-hydroxy-3,6-dioxa-bicyclo[3.2.1]octan-2-one from cellulose catalytic pyrolysis and its detection in bio-oils by spectroscopic methods

• A selective production of LAC was upgraded by fast pyrolysis of cellulose.
• Pyrolysis at two temperatures, three catalysts and one regenerated was performed.
• LAC was quantified in bio-oils by a 1H NMR standard-addition method.
• A fast quantitative IR evaluation of LAC in bio-oil solutions was also validated.

Catalytic pyrolysis of cellulose was carried out focusing on the selective production of the anhydrosugar (1R,5S)-1-hydroxy-3,6-dioxa-bicyclo[3.2.1]octan-2-one (LAC), a promising chiral chemical for application in organic synthesis. The catalyst Sn-MCM-41, montmorillonite K10 or aluminum titanate nanopowder was used by a suitable pyrolysis reactor performing the processes at 500 °C and 350 °C. After a workup adapted to optimize the production of LAC and to facilitate the following purification, its amount in the produced bio-oil samples was established by 1H NMR spectroscopy using the standard-addition method. A further quantitative analysis was based on FT-IR technique performed using a CaF2 liquid cell and employing the calibration-curve method. Both the methods, which do not require any pre-treatment steps, provided comparable values (±1%) in terms of LAC abundance in bio-oil samples and validation of the FT-IR based method made it a rapid and efficient tool for quantitative LAC detection also without need of carbonyl band deconvolution. The data showed that (i) Sn-MCM-41 promoted the highest LAC production by pyrolysis at 500 °C (7.6 ± 0.1 wt.% from cellulose), with a lower than 1% decrease in the presence of this catalyst after a regeneration cycle, and (ii) the cheap and eco-friendly montmorillonite K10 emerged as the best alternative, with a yield from cellulose of 4.8 ± 0.1 wt.% at 500 °C and 4.6 ± 0.1 wt.% at 350 °C.