Hydrophobic mesoporous acidic resin for hydroxyalkylation/alkylation of 2‐methylfuran and ketone to high‐density biofuel

Hydroxyalkylation/alkylation of biomass‐derived 2‐methylfuran with cyclic ketones (cyclopentanone and cyclohexanone) has great potential in synthesizing high‐density biofuel. But the conversion and selectivity are still unsatisfactory because the in‐situ formed water decreases the acidity of catalyst and induces side reaction. Herein, hydrophobic mesoporous resins with sulfonic acid group (PS) and fluoride sulfonic acid group (PCS) were synthesized by a simple solvothermal reaction and ion exchange treatment, which have good mesoporous structure with surface area of 300–700 m 2 /g. Notably, PS and PCS have better hydrophobicity and oleophilicity as compared to widely used sulfonic acid functional amberlyst‐15 and fluoride sulfonic acid functional nafion‐212. In the hydroxyalkylation/alkylation reaction, PS shows higher activity and selectivity than amberlyst‐15 while PCS surpasses nafion‐212. Furthermore, both PS and PCS have good recycling stability in consecutive 5 runs. After hydrodeoxygenation, two high‐density biofuels with density of 0.819 and 0.825 g/mL were obtained.