Biomass-derived ketones and aldehydes are characterized by short carbon chains and high oxygen content, making them unsuitable for direct use as fuel. This study utilized ruthenium-based polyoxometalates (Ru/POMs) as superacid catalysts to facilitate hydroxyalkylation/alkylation (HAA) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of the biomass-derived ketones/aldehydes with 2-methylfuran, producing high-grade aviation fuel. It was observed that the physiochemical properties of POMs would be effectively changed by regulating ions. Among them, cesium phosphotungstate (CsPW) exhibited the strong acidity and hydrophobicity, thus exhibiting superior catalytic activity. The HAA reaction of 2-methylfurnan and cyclohexanone was effectively catalyzed under mild conditions (60 °C, 5 h, solvent-free), producing 85.9% HAA products. Furthermore, bifunctional Ru/CsPW was prepared by loading Ru sites on CsPW, which could remove oxygen-containing functional groups of the HAA product to generate high-quality jet fuel. Under the mild conditions of 200 °C, 4 h, 3 MPa H2, the reactant was completely converted, with the yields of pentyl cyclohexane and 1-methyldecalin as high as 60.8 and 16.1%, respectively. In this work, an innovative catalytic system was proposed for aviation fuel production from biomass-derived platform compounds.
Wu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.