Purification of artemisinin precursor amorphadiene from microbial metabolites containing isomeride farnesene: Solid-Pd chemocatalysis of farnesene to squalene with high boiling point

• Published in: Catalysis communications 2023-10, Vol.183, p.106770, Article 106770
• Main Authors: Wu, Cuicui, Feng, Pan, Guo, Xuan, Fang, Yunming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artemisinin precursor amorpha-4, 11-diene; Biofuel-valued squalene; Purification process; Suzuki-Miyaura coupling; β-Farnesene
• ISSN: 1566-7367; 1873-3905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.catcom.2023.106770

Due to complex chemical mechanism of sesquiterpene synthases, amorpha-4, 11-diene (AD) from microbial fermentation contained isomeride β-farnesene (FA) with similar boiling point. For purifying AD, FA was converted to biofuel-valued squalene (SQ) with high boiling point using solid Pd catalysts. (NHT)OS-Pd catalysts resulted in FA conversion of >99.9% and SQ selectivity of >99.0% at 80 °C for 5 h. Moreover, this catalyst exhibited great stability and recycling performance. When (NHT)OS-Pd was applied to AD mixture, almost FA was converted to SQ and AD remained in the pre-reaction state. As SQ had a higher boiling point, AD was easily distilled out. [Display omitted] •Purification process of AD mixture containing isomeride FA was proposed.•Heterogeneous catalyst (NHT)OS-Pd with organosilane framework was synthesized.•Transformation of biobased FA toward SQ was achieved by (NHT)OS-Pd.•Excellent stability and recycling performance of (NHT)OS-Pd were demonstrated.•Distillation design for purification process was simulated using Aspen plus.