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Black liquor (BL) from the kraft pulping process has been treated at elevated temperatures (380 degrees C) in a batch reactor to give high yields of a bio oil comprising monomeric phenolic compounds that were soluble in organic solvents and mineral oil and a water fraction with inorganic salts. The metal content in the product was < 20 ppm after a simple extraction step. A correlation between concentration, temperature, and reaction time with respect to yield of desired product was found. At optimal reaction conditions (treating BL with 16 wt % dry substance at 380 degrees C for 20 min), the yield of extractable organics was around 80% of the original lignin with less than 7% of char. The product was analyzed by gel permeable chromatography, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, elemental analysis, and inductively coupled plasma. It was found that a large fraction composed of mainly cresols, xylenols, and mesitols. This process provides a pathway to convert a major waste stream from a pulp mill into a refinery feed for fuel or chemical production, whereas at the same time the inorganic chemicals are recovered and can be returned back to the pulp mill.

Several types of chiral hetero- and carbocyclic compounds have been synthesized by using the asymmetric hydrogenation of cyclic alkenes. N,P-Ligated iridium catalysts reduced six-membered cyclic alkenes with various substituents and heterofunctionality in good to excellent enantioselectivity, whereas the reduction of five-membered cyclic alkenes was generally less selective, giving modest enantiomeric excesses. The stereoselectivity of the hydrogenation depended more strongly on the substrate structure for the five- rather than the six-membered cyclic alkenes. The major enantiomer formed in the reduction of six-membered alkenes could be predicted from a selectivity model and isomeric alkenes had complementary enantioselectivity, giving opposite optical isomers upon hydrogenation. The utility of the reaction was demonstrated by using it as a key step in the preparation of chiral 1,3-cis-cyclohexane carboxylates.

This thesis discusses the preparation and use of transition-metal catalysts for selective organic chemical reactions. Specifically, two different matters have been studied; the asymmetric hydrogenation of carbon-carbon double bonds using N,P-ligated iridium catalysts and the metal-catalyzed transfer of small molecules from biomass to synthetic intermediates. In the first part of this thesis, chiral N,P-ligands were synthesized and evaluated in iridium catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of non- and weakly functionalized alkenes (Papers I & II). The new catalysts were prepared via chiral-pool strategies and exhibited superior properties for the reduction of certain types of alkenes. In particular, some of the catalysts showed excellent activity and selectivity in the enantioselective reduction of terminal alkenes, and the preparation of a modular catalyst library allowed the asymmetric hydrogenation of a wide range of 1,1-disubstituted alkenes with unprecedented efficiency and enantioselectivity (Paper III). Methods for the selective preparation of chiral hetero- and carbocyclic fragments using iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation as an enantiodetermining key step were also developed. A range of elusive chiral building blocks that have applications in pharmaceutical and natural-product chemistry could thus be conveniently prepared (Papers IV & V). The second part of this thesis deals with the catalytic decomposition of polysaccharides into sugar alcohols and the incorporation of their decomposition products into alkene substrates. Iridium-catalyzed dehydrogenative decarbonylation was found to decompose polyols into CO:H2 mixtures that could be used immediately in the ex situ low-pressure hydroformylation of styrene (Paper VI). The net process was thus the hydroformylation of alkenes with biomass-derived synthesis gas.

The catalytic techniques that degrade polysaccharides such as cellulose and elaborate the resulting monomers into organic feedstocks in situ make up an old area of research that has been reignited of late. One-pot conversions of polysaccharides into small organic molecules under acidic, basic, oxidative, reductive and hydrothermal conditions have been reported, and a remarkable breadth of compounds have been produced. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), levulinic acid and polyols such as sorbitol have been obtained in particularly high yields, whereas serious selectivity struggles remain in reactions that produce organic acids such as lactic or glycolic acid. This review covers one-pot, catalytic transformations of polysaccharides into small organic molecules and focuses on mechanism, selectivity and optimization.

A range of saturated chiral azacycles has been prepared in high yield and with high selectivity from simple starting materials. A modular approach with ring-closing metathesis as a key step was used to produce a number of five-, six-, and seven-membered cyclic alkenes. Asymmetric hydrogenation catalyzed by N,P-ligated iridium complexes gave saturated azacycles in high optical purity. This methodology was demonstrated in the synthesis of a pharmaceutical precursor.