Synthesis of High-Density Aviation Biofuels from Biomass-Derived Cyclopentanone

Herein, we describe a three-step synthesis strategy starting with a chemical kinetics-governed one-pot two-step reaction. A series of biomass-derived molecules have been converted into ring-structured alkanes suitable for use as transportation fuels or jet fuels with high overall isolated yields of 68–90%. Various biomass-derived molecules can be used as starting materials, which include molecules with different functional groups such as carbonyl groups, benzene and furan rings, olefins, and so forth. Efficient and green reactions, including one-pot two-step reactions and solvent-free reactions, with common reagents and catalysts under mild reaction conditions or even under room temperature, were developed to produce bi(cyclopentane)-based biofuels with diversified and selective structures in good to excellent yields. The obtained products exhibit high densities of 0.87–0.94 g/cm3 and high net volumetric heating values of 38.3–41.4 MJ/L. Besides, they also have other fuel properties comparable to some well-known commercial synthetic fuels such as JET A, JET A-1, JET B, JP-10, and RJ-4. Some of the obtained biofuels have low freezing points of −58 and −80 °C. This general synthetic approach could be extended to a range of precursors with different carbon numbers, which allows the selective generation of high-energy content ring-structured alkanes with carbon numbers of C11–C26.