Bio-adipic acid production by trans,trans muconic acid hydrogenation with a Pt/C catalyst

Muconic acid is a polyunsaturated dicarboxylic acid that can be produced from wood biomass-derived aromatic compounds and sugars through biological production. This intermediate is particularly relevant, because it can be chemically converted to adipic acid through a catalytic hydrogenation reaction, fostering the shift to a green industry. Adipic acid is one of the most commercially important dicarboxylic acid, as feedstock for the production of PA-6,6, and currently is entirely manufactured from oil. If muconic acid production is widely study, the subsequent hydrogenation to adipic acid is far from being optimized. The purpose of working with model solutions of muconic acid was to performed the hydrogenation reaction in the mildest conditions, compatible with an industrial economic scale up. Moreover, we hypothesized a reaction pathway useful to understand the mechanism and to regress the kinetic parameters.