Kinetics of the selective oxidation of the lignan hydroxymatairesinol to oxomatairesinol over Au/Al2O3 catalysts

•Lignan hydroxymatairesinol oxidation as mixtures and individually.•Zero order in oxygen and fractional in the substrate.•Significant rate retardation as the reaction proceeds.•Kinetic model for oxidative dehydrogenation with noncompetitive adsorption.•Activation energy 43 kJ/mol.

Lignan hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) extracted from Norway spruce knots was oxidized to the lignan oxomatairesinol (oxoMAT) in a semi-batch glass reactor under the atmospheric pressure in the presence of oxygen (5–49 vol.% in nitrogen) over 2 wt.% Au/Al2O3 catalyst, using propan-2-ol-water mixture as a solvent. The following kinetic parameters were determined: adsorption constants, rate constants, reaction order for reagents, and energy of activation. Through the parameter estimation the experimental data were fitted to the advanced kinetic model demonstrating a good correlation between the model and experiments.

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