Highly dispersed NbOPO4/SBA-15 as a versatile acid catalyst upon production of renewable jet-fuel from bio-based furanics via hydroxyalkylation-alkylation (HAA) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reactions

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 272; p. 118987
• Main Authors: Samikannu, Ajaikumar, Konwar, Lakhya Jyoti, Rajendran, Kishore, Lee, Cheng Choo, Shchukarev, Andrey, Virtanen, Pasi, Mikkola, Jyri-Pekka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 05-09-2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Alkylation; Aluminosilicates; Aluminum; Aluminum silicates; Ammonia; C-C coupling; Carbonyl compounds; Carbonyls; Catalysts; Coupling (molecular); Fuels; Hydrodeoxygenation; Jet-Fuel; Mesoporous NbOPO4; Niobium oxides; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Selectivity; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Supported solid acid catalysts; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Supported solid acid catalysts; C-C coupling; Jet-Fuel; Hydrodeoxygenation; Mesoporous NbOPO4
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.118987

•H3PO4-free deposition technique to obtain highly dispersed and active Brønsted acidic NbOPO4/SBA-15 materials.•Synthesis of renewable jet-fuel components from bio-based molecules.•Active and selective bifunctional HDO catalysts based on NbOPO4/SBA-15.•The catalysts are stable, reusable and suitable for valorization of large bio-molecules.
Herein, we report the synthesis of a highly active and mesoporous Brønsted acidic NbOPO4/SBA-15 catalyst. The prepared catalysts were thoroughly characterized by means of analytical techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, XPS, NH3-TPD, SEM-EDS, TEM, TGA, 31P-MAS-NMR and N2-physisorption. The H3PO4 free deposition method was found to be effective for preserving the structure of Silica based carrier. In terms of catalytic performance, these materials demonstrated high activity upon C-C coupling of 2-methyl furan with carbonyl compounds and outperforming bulk NbOPO4, Nb2O5/SBA-15 and traditional solid acid catalysts (Al-MCM-41, Si/Al and H-ZSM-5). The NbOPO4/SBA-15 catalysts were stable and maintained high activity upon reuse and continuous operation (∼65 h). Furthermore, the Pd loaded counterparts (Pd/NbOPO4/SBA-15 and Pd/Nb2O5/SBA-15) also functioned as bifunctional catalysts and exhibited excellent activity upon subsequent hydrodeoxygenation of C-C coupling products. Most importantly, in terms of jet-fuel range hydrocarbons selectivity, these catalysts outperformed monofunctional Pd/carbon and aluminosilicate based bifunctional catalysts.