2-Methylfuran (2-MF) and cyclopentanone (CPO) are the selective hydrogenation products of furfural, which can be produced in industrial scale with lignocellulose. In this work, renewable diesel or jet fuel range branched alkanes and cycloalkanes were first synthesized simultaneously by the solvent-free hydroxyalkylation/alkylation (HAA) of 2-MF and CPO followed by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). Among the solid acid catalysts used in this work, Nafion-212 resin exhibited the best activity and selectivity for the HAA of 2-MF and CPO. The excellent performance of Nafion-212 resin can be attributed to the high acid strength of this catalyst. After the HDO of the HAA products of 2-MF and CPO over several nickel catalysts, a mixture of jet fuel range branched alkanes and cycloalkanes with relatively higher density was obtained at high carbon yield. Compared with Ni/SiO 2 , acidic support loaded nickel catalysts are more active in the HDO process, which may be attributed to the promotion effect of acid sites in dehydration and the ring opening reaction of furan compounds.
For the first time, renewable high density aviation fuels were synthesized at high overall yield (95.6%) by the Guerbet reaction of cyclopentanol which can be derived from lignocellulose, followed by the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). The solvent-free Guerbet reaction of cyclopentanol was carried out under the co-catalysis of solid bases and Raney metals. Among the investigated catalyst systems, the combinations of magnesium-aluminium hydrotalcite (MgAl-HT) and Raney Ni (or Raney Co) exhibited the best performances. Over them, high carbon yield (96.7%) of C10 and C15 oxygenates was achieved. The Guerbet reaction products were further hydrodeoxygenated to bi(cyclopentane) and tri(cyclopentane) over a series of Ni catalysts. These alkanes have high densities (0.86 g mL−1 and 0.91 g mL−1) and can be used as high density aviation fuels or additives to bio-jet fuel. Among the investigated HDO catalysts, the 35 wt.% Ni-SiO2-DP prepared by deposition-precipitation method exhibited the highest activity.
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