The dominating catalytic approach to aromatic hydrocarbons from renewables, deoxygenation of phenol-rich depolymerized lignin bio-oils, is hard to achieve: hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of phenols typically leads to the loss of aromaticity and to non-negligible fractions of cyclohexanones and cyclohexanols. Here, we report a catalyst, niobia-supported iridium nanoparticles (Ir@Nb 2 O 5 ), which combines full conversion in the HDO of lignin-derived phenols with appreciable and tunable selectivity for aromatics (25–95%) under mild conditions (200–300 °C, 2.5–10 bar of H 2 ). A simple approach to the removal of Brønsted-acidic sites via Hünig’s base prevents coking and allows reaction conditions ( T > 225 °C, 2.5 bar of H 2 ), promoting high yields of aromatic hydrocarbons.

Here we report the first heterogeneous iridium-based catalyst (Ir@Nb2O5) able to combine full conversion in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin-derived phenols to hydrocarbons with appreciable selectivity for aromatics. With temperature and pressure optimization, and coking inhibition by selective removal of acid sites, the aromatic yields reach 69% under mild conditions.