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Efficient utilization of renewable biomass plays a vital role in CO2 mitigation. Direct conversion of cellulose, the most abundant fraction in lignocellulosic biomass, into ethylene glycol is a promising route. In this work, by using the biowaste pomelo peel as the carbon precursor, the Ru–WOX/biochar (BC) bifunctional catalyst was prepared via pyrolysis in a nitrogen atmosphere without further reduction. Cellulose could be efficiently converted into ethylene glycol with a yield of 68.8% after 10 h using Ru–WOX/BC at the temperature of 220 °C and 3 MPa H2. The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time, H2 pressure and catalysts obtained from different pyrolysis temperatures on the yield of ethylene glycol were investigated. The characterization and reaction results showed that the gas generated from pyrolysis of pomelo peel could partially reduce ruthenium precursor to metallic form. Metallic Ru can not only promote the reduction of W6+ to W5+, but also work on hydrogenation reaction. The catalyst and preparation method have a promising application in cellulose conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-oxide interaction was widely observed in supported metal catalysts, playing a significant role in tuning the catalytic performance. Here, we reported that the interaction of Ru and MnO x was able to facilitate the hydrodeoxygenation of levulinic acid (LA) to 2-butanol with a high turnover frequency (1.99 × 10 6 h -1 ), turnover number (4411), and yield (98.8%). Moreover, this catalyst was capable of removing the hydroxymethyl group of lactones and diol with high yields of products. The high activity of the Ru-MnO x catalyst was due to the strong Ru-MnO x interaction, which facilitated reduction of Ru oxide to Ru 0 and Mn oxide to Mn 2+ . The increased fractions of Ru 0 and Mn 2+ provided metal and Lewis acid sites, respectively, and therefore facilitated LA hydrodeoxygenation. A linear correlation between the hydrodeoxygenation activity of the Ru-MnO x catalyst and [Mn 2+ ]ln([Ru 0 ]) was observed.