Current research within sustainable chemistry aims for solutions that provide renewable carbon sources as well as clean energy alternatives. The substitution of conventional fossil fuels is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Hence, alternative and benign fuels derived from biomass conversion represent promising sustainable options.
In this thesis, various catalytic reactions of two biomasses, ethanol and glycerol, were investigated using organometallic complexes. On the one hand, a novel way of upgrading ethanol was discovered, it was found that the spatial configuration of the complexes affects the choice of reaction paths, whereby a novel mechanism was provided and validation was given. Furthermore, the solvent effects on the acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of ethanol were explored in terms of polarity, boiling point, and energy.
On the other hand, with Ru-MACHO-BH, some preliminary transfer hydrogenation of some typical aromatic aldehydes, aromatic ketones, aliphatic ketones with glycerol as hydrogen donor, and one-step, base-free dehydrogenation of glycerol to lactic acid experiments were given and analyzed in detail.