Catalytic upgrade of carbonyl fermentation products to added-value products: role of heterogeneous catalysis

This PhD intends a strong collaboration with fermentation research. Given fermentation effectively converts carbohydrate to a variety of carbonyls, chemocatalysis may be a promising tool to further upgrade these bio-based platform chemicals to added value products for the chemical industry. This PhD thus will study new catalytic pathways to convert such carbonyls, such as ketoacids, aldehydes and hydroxy-fatty acids selectively into a variety of useful bio-based chemicals for the detergent and polymer market. Focus lies on well selected reaction types for which the role of the catalysts will be clarified. Reaction schemes will be developed including kinetic analysis herein, as well as identification of the active sites responsible for the catalysis will be characterized.