Process for the synthesis of l-iditol and recycling of the catalyst

Abstract

A process for the preparation of L-lditol comprising at least the process steps: i) a L-Sorbose comprising composition is subjected to hydrogenation with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrophobic stereoselective ruthenium catalyst complex in a homogeneous solution, wherein the ruthenium catalyst complex comprises at least one chiral ligand containing at least two phosphorus atom, which are capable of coordinating to the ruthenium yielding in a composition comprising L-lditol as the main product; ii) separation of the reaction products produced in step i) from the ruthenium catalyst complex; iii) reactivating the separated ruthenium catalyst complex of step ii) by adding a chloride source and reusing the reactivated ruthenium catalyst complex in step i).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.