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Biomass‐derived phenolic compounds and small oxygenates obtained from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass needs to be upgraded to obtain the C10‐C13 range fuel precursors. In this context, iso‐propylation of m‐cresol was performed in batch reactors using multifunctional ionic liquids (ILs) as catalysts. Environmentally benign Bronsted‐Lewis acidic ILs were synthesized and characterized using 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Raman spectroscopic data. Relative Bronsted and Lewis acidity of these ILs were compared using UV‐Visible and FTIR spectroscopic data and the effect of acidity on the catalytic activity and product selectivity in alkylation of m‐cresol with iso‐propyl alcohol was investigated. Correlation of acidity and catalytic activity was confirmed by theoretical DFT study on IL structures. High conversion of m‐cresol (95.6%) was obtained using ZnCl2 containing IL, at 393 K temperature and 2:1:1 alcohol: m‐cresol: IL molar ratio, within 5 h of reaction time. The activity and recoverability of these ILs were retained even after 8 recycles. The effect of process parameters like reaction time, temperature, reactant mole ratio and catalyst to reactant mole ratio was investigated and optimized from design of experiments results. A plausible reaction mechanism was formulated based on the product distribution and a kinetic model was developed to estimate the activation energy (45.70 kJ mol−1) and pre‐exponential factor (247.78 lit. mol−1 min−1).

The comprehensive kinetics of simultaneous CO consumption in the Fischer-Tropsch and Water-Gas-Shift reaction network was systematically investigated over supported FeCo2O4 spinel catalyst. Operando FTIR-MS study reveals hydrogen-assisted cleavage of C-O...