Succinic acid from renewable resources as a C₄ building-block chemical—a review of the catalytic possibilities in aqueous media

Aqueous hydrogenation of bio-based succinic acid has been reported for the production of value added chemicals, e.g. 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, γ-butyrolactone, 2-pyrrolidone or N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. A variety of heterogeneous metallic catalysts, active under quite severe conditions have previously been studied, whereas research into organometallic complexes is thus far limited to solvent reactions or to aqueous reactions producing succinic acid.