Hydrous pyrolysis of glucose using a rapid pulsed reaction technique

Hydrous pyrolysis of glucose is a promising method to produce glycolaldehyde and other valuable oxygenates in high yield. In this process, an aqueous glucose solution is sprayed into a fluidized bed at pyrolysis conditions. In this work, a pulsed chromatographic method is proposed for rapid investigation of the effect of operating parameters on the product distribution, especially the glycolaldehyde yield. This new technique also provided insights into the reaction pathways of hydrous glucose cracking and allowed to determine the time-frame in which the reaction takes place. From this, the reaction rate parameters for the kinetics of the retro-aldol condensation reaction leading to glycolaldehyde from glucose, e.g. apparent Arrhenius activation energy (Ea) could be derived. Furthermore, different sugars and different operating parameters such as temperature, carrier gas residence time, pulse injection volume, and solvent type were tested to understand the mechanism behind glucose cracking.