Highly efficient hydrodeoxygenation of lignin-derivatives over Ni-based catalyst

Designing highly active non-noble metal catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation of renewable biomass into value added biofuels and chemicals is highly desirable, but still remains a challenging task. In this work, flower-like Ni catalysts supported on mixed metal oxides (MMO) were fabricated by calcination and reduction of NiZnAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors. The optimized Ni0.5Zn1.5Al1-MMO catalyst displayed excellent hydrodeoxygenation catalytic activity for lignin derivatives at 130 °C, being much superior with the catalysts prepared by impregnation and coprecipitation method, as well as most of the reported non-noble catalysts. The superior activity originated from the synergetic effect of large specific surface area of the support, strong metal-support interaction and more acid sites. This research provides a feasible route for the constructing efficient hydrodeoxygenation catalysts by tuning the physicochemical property and composition of the catalyst.