Towards a sustainable synthesis of formate salts: combined catalytic methanol dehydrogenation and bicarbonate hydrogenation.

Formate salts are important chemicals widely used in everyday products. The current industrial-scale manufacture of formates requires CO at high pressure and harsh reaction conditions. Herein, we describe a new process for these products without the utilization of hazardous gases and chemicals. By application of ruthenium pincer complexes, a simultaneous methanol dehydrogenation and bicarbonate hydrogenation reaction proceeds, which provides a green synthesis of formate salts with excellent TON (>18,000), TOF (>1300 h(-1)), and yield (>90%).