Understanding the
reactions of heteroatomic cyclic compounds is
essential for developing good catalysts for the upgrading of bio-oils
into liquid fuels. The present study presents the reaction network
of 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF, C5H10O),
a bio-oil model compound, on silica-supported nickel phosphide at
0.1 MPa and 300 °C. Contact time experiments showed that 2-MTHF
reacted to first form 1-pentanol and 2-pentanol, then n-pentanal, 2-pentanone, and 1- and 2-pentenes, and finally n-pentane. The observation is consistent with a reaction
network in which adsorption of 2-MTHF is followed by rate-determining
ring-opening steps on the more hindered side (path I) or the more
open side (path II) to first produce adsorbed alcohols. The alcohols
then transform into adsorbed aldehyde, ketone, and pentene species
which can simply desorb or react to produce the final product n-butane (decarbonylation of adsorbed n-pentanal) or n-pentane (hydrogenation of adsorbed
pentenes). Kinetic modeling of the proposed reaction network gave
good agreement with the experimental data and predicted that path
I intermediates would be more numerous than path II intermediates
on the surface. A series of in situ FTIR results gave further support
for the mechanism with the presence of the CO and CC
bands of the adsorbed aldehyde/ketone and alkene species. Transient
experiments gave evidence for the model calculations that predicted
more plentiful path I surface species.
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