Selective hydrogenation catalyst made via heat-processing of biogenic Pd nanoparticles and novel ‘green’ catalyst for Heck coupling using waste sulfidogenic bacteria

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 306; p. 121059
• Main Authors: Mikheenko, Iryna P., Bennett, James A., Omajali, Jacob B., Walker, Marc, Johnson, D. Barrie, Grail, Barry M., Wong-Pascua, David, Moseley, Jonathan D., Macaskie, Lynne E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 05-06-2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Bacteria; Catalysts; Desulfovibrio desulfuricans; Efficient hydrogenation; Green chemistry; Heat treatment; Heat treatments; Heck synthesis; Hydrogenation; Nanoparticles; Palladium; Palladium nanoparticle catalyst; Selectivity; Waste upvalorization; Palladium nanoparticle catalyst; Green chemistry; Efficient hydrogenation; Waste upvalorization; Heck synthesis
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.121059

A heterogeneous Pd catalyst, biologically-mineralized palladium nanoparticles (bio-Pd), was synthesized using sulfidogenic bacteria which reduced soluble Pd(II) to catalytically-active Pd-nanoparticles (NPs). Heat treatment (processing) of bio-Pd (5 or 20 wt% on the cells) made by Desulfovibrio desulfuricans evolved supported Pd-catalyst comprising Pd-NPs held on large spherical hollow structures. The rate of hydrogenation of 2-butyne-1,4-diol was ~5-fold slower than for a commercial catalyst (~twice that of native bio-Pd), but with high selectivity to the alkene, fulfilling a key industrial criterion. In the Heck reaction, while bio-Pd showed a comparable reaction rate in ethyl cinnamate synthesis to that achieved by commercial Pd/C, heat-treated bio-Pd had negligible activity. D. desulfuricans bio-Pd was replaced by bio-Pd made using a consortium of waste acidophilic sulfidogenic bacteria (CAS) supplied from an unrelated primary remediation process. This gave comparable activity to commercial 5 wt% Pd/C in ethyl cinnamate synthesis, signposting an economic, scalable route to catalyst manufacture.
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•New catalyst market entrants must be better than what is currently available (# 1) or be more economic to produce (# 2).•For # 1: Biofabricated heat-treated Pd-nanoparticles have higher hydrogenation selectivity than a commercial catalyst.•For # 2: A sulfidogenic biowaste made ‘bio-Pd’ catalyst, comparably active in the Heck synthesis to a commercial catalyst.•Academic studies gave identical results in industrial evaluations, i.e. the ‘level playing field’.