Production of deoxygenated high carbon number hydrocarbons from furan condensates: Hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-based oxygenates

Two-step hydrodeoxygenation of furan trimers using supported Ni catalysts was successfully performed by substituting expensive noble metal catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation, which can contribute to the development of feasible hydrodeoxygenation processes with which to prepare high-carbon-number hydrocarbon fuels. Although more cracking of hydrocarbon products was observed for the Ni catalysts, the substitution of noble metal catalysts with Ni catalysts was successful, leading to good HDO activity. The combination of the first step of Ni/CeO2 (hydrogenation) and the second step of Ni/tungstated zirconia (hydrodeoxygenation) led to complete deoxygenation, achieving 87.8% of the theoretical maximum yield of the oil phase product, which is slightly lower than the value of 91.1% for the combination of the first step of Pd/C (hydrogenation) and Ru/tungstated zirconia (hydrodeoxygenation). The roles of first-step hydrogenation were revealed as the hydrogenation of unsaturated furan rings and the hydrolysis of saturated furan rings.