A one-pot process for cellulose-to-ethanol based on graphene-activated Ni

Longlong MA and colleagues from the Institute of Energy Conversion of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou developed a one-pot process for the production of ethanol from cellulose by hydrogenolysis. Cellulose is hydrolyzed with aqueous phosphoric acid to form glucose, whose cyclic phosphoric acid ester decomposes to ethanol in the presence of graphene-activated nickel (Ni@C). The molar yield of ethanol was 69.1%.

https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201901110