Along with the growing interest in Fuel Cell powered cars comes the need for higher production methods of Hydrogen, both in bulk form and in-car conversions (for fuels such as methanol and ethanol to be converted to hydrogen on board). Previous methods of converting Ethanol to hydrogen was by means of high-temperature steam reformation (at temperatures in excess of 600° C) to produce Hydrogen gas and CO.

This journal describes a special method of low-temperature dehydrogenation of ethanol over special Raney catalyst with Cu added to it. The first step produces one mole each of hydrogen gas and acetaldehyde (per mole of ethanol). This is followed by the decarbonylation of acetaldehyde to form methanol and CO. The whole reaction undergoes a water-gas shift to net one mole each of Methane and Carbon dioxide and two moles of Hydrogen.

Compared to high temperature reformation methods, which produces 6 moles of hydrogen per mole of ethanol, this reaction doesn’t seem as fuel efficient, though the authors were confident, that with an internal combustion engine on-board that uses the methane produced as fuel, the total output energy would be equal.

The reaction shown above outlines the synthesis of the lupinine ester. These esters have been studied for their biological properties. Found mainly in plants there is heavy research being done on them for their antiviral, antitumor and hepatoprotective activity. In some cases lupinine esters can exhibit local anesthetic properties.

The reaction shows how you would synthesize a lupinine ester from betulonic acid chloride with lupinine. Side conditions for this reaction include the presence of triethylamine and must be performed in dry CCl4.

The above reaction shows an epimeric steroid alcohol being converted by a catalyst of ruthenium and aluminum oxide to a racemic mixture of 17-estradiol 3-methyl ether and a ketone. The racemic mixture is formed by converting the beta version of the ether, where the hydroxyl group is on the top of the ring, to the alpha version of the ether, where the hydroxyl group is underneath the ring. The reaction is stopped when the amount of alpha ether is roughly equivalent to the amount of beta ether. In the notation used, the wavy line between the hydroxyl group and the ether shows that the hydroxyl group can be in either the front or the back of the molecule.

However, a ketone can be produced instead of the alpha ether when the alcohol is oxidized. Because the purpose of the reaction is to racemize the ether, this ketone is an unwanted side product. To prevent oxidation, toluene at 100 C is used as a solvent. The chemical properties of toluene slow the formation of the ketone so that at temperatures around 100 C, the yield of the racemic mixture is about 54%. Any ketone that does form can be separated from the ether by flash chromatography. This reaction is a good way to racemize the ether efficiently and inexpensively; it was traditionally synthesized at a much higher cost.

In the syntheses of aromatic esters and ethers, CsF-Celite has been found to be a very efficient, convenient and practical reagent. In fact, it is used for the coupling reactions of a number of aromatic and heteroaromatic phenols with alkyl, acyl or benzoyl halides.

Many other organic reactions have recently been catalyzed by CsF-Celite, such as the reactions to synthesize carboxylic esters, γ-lactones, N-alkylation of anilines, or carboxamides.