FULL PAPER

Simultaneous upgrading of furanics and phenolics via

hydroxyalkylation/aldol condensation reactions

Tuong V. Bui, Tawan Sooknoi, Daniel E. Resasco*

School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering
University of Oklahoma
100 E. Boyd St., Norman, OK 73019, USA

Abstract:

The simultaneous conversion of cyclopentanone and m-cresol has been investigated on a series of solid acid catalysts. Both
compounds are representative of biomass-derived streams. Cyclopentanone can be readily obtained from sugar-derived furfurals via
Piancatelli rearrangement under reducing conditions. Cresol represents the family of phenolics, typically obtained from the
depolymerization of lignin. In the first biomass conversion strategy proposed here, furfural is converted in high yields and selectivity
to cyclopentanone (CPO) over metal catalysts such as Pd-Fe/SiO 2 catalyst at 600 psia H2 and 150oC. Subsequently, CPO and cresol
are further converted via acid-catalyzed hydroxyalkylation. This C-C coupling reaction may be used to generate products in the
molecular weight range that is appropriate for transportation fuels. Since molecules beyond this range may be undesirable for fuel
production, a catalyst with suitable porous structure may be advantageous for controlling the product distribution in the desirable
range. In fact, when Amberlyst resins were used as a catalyst, C 12-C24 products were obtained, whereas when zeolites with smaller
pore sizes were used, they selectively produced C 10 products. Alternatively, CPO can undergo the acid-catalyzed self-aldol
condensation to form C10 bicyclic adducts. As an illustration of the potential of practical implementation of this strategy for biofuel
production, the long chain oxygenates obtained from hydroxyalkylation/aldol condensation were successfully upgraded via
hydrodeoxygenation to a mixture of linear alkanes and saturated cyclic hydrocarbons, which in practice would be direct drop-in
components for transportation fuels. Aqueous acidic environments, typically encountered during the liquid-phase upgrading of bio-oils
would inhibit the efficiency of base-catalyzed process. Therefore, the proposed acid-catalyzed upgrading strategy is advantageous in
terms of process simplicity for biomass conversion.

Introduction upgrading practically impossible. Therefore, greater efforts are

needed to help in the development of more efficient biomass
Fossil sources exhibit undoubted technological and economical
upgrading technologies with a number of unit operations that
advantages for production of chemicals and transportation fuels.
make the process economically feasible. Although several
However, emission of greenhouse gases (CO 2 and CH4) is an
strategies have been investigated to process vapors and liquids
issue of critical concern regarding global warming and climate
derived from biomass pyrolysis, finding efficient processes that
change. This concern has led to increased research efforts with
can be techno-economically attractive has been challenging
the goal of commercializing fuels and chemicals from biomass
[1]11. The direct catalytic hydrotreating of condensed bio-oil
sources that would greatly reduce the carbon footprint.
faces major problems [2, 3], including low yields of liquids in the
However, techno-economic evaluations indicate that immediate
fuel range and high hydrogen pressures, which complicates their
implementation is not possible. The great variety of oxygenated
integration with a pyrolysis system [4]. Incorporation of pre-
compounds with incompatible chemistries makes a single-stage
hydrogenated bio-oils into conventional petroleum feedstocks in
refinery operations, such as the fluidized catalytic cracking
(FCC) and hydrotreating units [5, 6] have also shown technical
Corresponding Author: Prof. Dr. D. E Resasco
E-mail: ouresasco@gmail.com impediments that may obstruct their implementation in
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commercial processes. Some important advances have been promising route to stabilize furfural into cyclopentanone. This is
made in the upgrading of pyrolysis vapors that leads to a remarkable pathway, because the O heteroatom is removed
enhanced stability of the condensed liquid by forming C-C bonds from the ring, producing CPO a useful chemical and potential
before adjusting the oxygen content [7, 8]. building block for C-C coupling reactions [29]. Although the
Piancatelli ring rearrangement of furfuryl alcohol readily occurs
In the last few years, we have investigated possible
in hot liquid water without the need of an additional catalyst,
conversion paths for separated vapors and liquids obtained from
hydrogenation is required to first hydrogenate the CO group in
fractionation of bio-oil via step-wise condensation of pyrolysis
furfural, as well as the resulting C=C double bond after the ring
vapors [9, 10] as well as multistage pyrolysis process [11, 12].
closure to obtain CPO. For this reaction, noble metal catalysts
The core of this approach is to carry out the sequence of thermal
such as Pt, Pd, Ru, Ir as well as inexpensive metals such as Ni,
treatments by heating the biomass at increasing temperatures
Cu have been used in the conversion of furfural in aqueous
so that the bio-oil is fractionated into different streams, each one
phase under H2 pressure [31, 32]. For example, over 75% yield
enriched in either light oxygenates, or sugar-derived
of CPO has been reported over Pt/C or Ni-CNTs [22, 33]. High
compounds, or phenolics-derived compounds, respectively [11,
selectivity toward cyclopentanone is a definite techno-economic
12]. Accordingly, by segregating each specific group of functional
advantage of this approach compared to other upgrading
molecules in a separate fraction, a combined catalytic upgrading
strategies. For the Piancatelli rearrangement, the presence of
strategy can be developed more selectively and effectively,
liquid water plays a crucial role in the reaction [20, 22, 30].
exploiting the different chemistries of each fraction and
Moreover, the presence of acetic acid in the reaction mixture
optimizing the upgrading instead of a single hydrotreating step
provides a positive effect on the yield of the desired products
for the full bio-oil [13-15].
[29]. That is, components that are naturally present in biomass-
The fraction of light-oxygenates is rich in acetic acid, acetol, derived streams, i.e., aqueous solutions with high acidity, favor
and acetaldehyde. We have previously proposed [14] that they the occurrence of this reaction. Not only CPO is a very
could undergo ketonization to produce acetone, which in turn convenient building block for carbon retention in the liquid fuel
could be coupled with furfural, an abundant component in the range, but reaching high conversions of furanics to this single
sugar-derived stream, to produce C8-C13 oxygenates over basic molecule greatly reduces catalyst deactivation by avoiding the
catalysts [16, 17]. Alternatively, instead of directly condensing typical resinification of furfurals to humins. From all of this, we
with acetone, furfural can also be pre-stabilized into key propose that the path of furanics to cyclopentanone is a very
intermediates to diminish carbon losses and humins formation, a effective strategy for upgrading of furfural-rich streams [28].
major cause of catalyst deactivation. The intermediate products
The phenolics fraction can also be used to effectively
are still functional, so they can be further upgraded (C-C bond-
incorporate into the fuel range those oxygenates that are too
chain enlarged) to a wide range of desirable products.
small to be directly hydrotreated. That is, converting C 2-C4
Hydrogenation-decarbonylation of furfural to furan oxygenates to alcohols greatly facilitates their incorporation via
compounds (i.e., methyl furan, dimethyl furan) [18, 19], ring alkylation. For example, iso-propanol, obtained from
rearrangement of furfural to cyclopentanone (CPO) via hydrogenation of acetone, can produce hydrocarbons in a
Piancatelli reaction [20-22], or oxidation of furfural to carboxylic molecular weight range suitable for the gasoline/diesel pool.
acids [23, 24] are outstanding examples of furfural conversion Corma et al. [25, 34, 35] have pointed out the feasibility of
into more stable forms that have been recently reported in the forming C-C bonds between carbonyl compounds with other
literature. In the so-called Sylvan process, methyl furan is organic molecules whenever their electron-density is high
condensed with different types of carbonyl compounds, such as enough to promote the electrophilic-attack of the oxonium ion
acetone, butanal, or furfural [25, 26] to elongate the carbon generated by the protonation of the carbonyl group. Phenolics
chain and bring the products to the fuel range. Dimethyl furan compounds such as m-cresol and guaiacol, abundant species in
can also be coupled with ethylene via Diels-Alder reaction to biomass pyrolysis vapors, are suitable candidates as
produce valuable aromatics such as p-xylene [27]. Specific hydroxyalkylation aromatic substrates. In fact, several studies
strategies for upgrading biomass-derived furanics via C-C have reported successful examples of hydroxyalkylation in
coupling reaction have been analyzed in our recent review [28]. systems comprising acetaldehyde/p-cresol [36], acetaldehyde

Interestingly, Hronec et al. [29, 30] have shown that the /phenol [37], formaldehyde/guaiacol [38], acetaldehyde/o-xylene

Piancatelli ring rearrangement in reducing condition is also a [39], aldehyde/benzene derivatives [40, 41], acetone / phenol
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[42], benzaldehyde/benzene derivatives [43], polymeric matrix that may become significant as temperature
paraformaldehyde /anisole [44], formaldehyde/benzene [45], increases.
formaldehyde / phenol [46] over acid-functionalized solids, such
The acid-catalyzed formation of AC products is in itself an
as Amberlyst acidic resin and acidic zeolites to produce crucial
interesting outcome of the study since the aldol condensation of
platforms for the chemical industry. For example, Rode et al.
cyclopentanone has been typically reported over basic catalysts,
[47] have reported 80-95% yields of coupling products from the
such as MgO, KF/Al2O3, CaO-CeO2, CaO, magnesium
reaction of acetaldehyde/p-cresol over H and bentonite clay
aluminum hydrotalcites (MgAl-HT) and lithiumaluminum
catalysts impregnated with dodecatungstophosphoric acid.
hydrotalcites (LiAl-HT) [48], or even in NaOH solutions [30].
In this contribution, we propose a novel approach for the While it is widely known that the aldol condensation can be
simultaneous upgrading of furfural and m-cresol, two model catalyzed by both bases and acids, the latter has seldom been
compounds that represent two streams of sequential biomass reported for cyclopentanone. Zou et al. [49] reported the self-
thermal treatment at moderate and high temperatures. In this aldol condensation of cyclopentanone and cyclohexanone in
strategy, furfural is first pre-stabilized as cyclopentanone via the glass reactor over MOF-encapsulating phosphotungstic,
Piancatelli rearrangement/hydrogenation process [22, 48]. This Amberlyst 15 and HZSM-5 materials. The reaction was
intermediate product is then used to hydroxyalkylate m-cresol conducted at 130oC in pure cyclic ketone for 48h and moderate
and generate C10-C24 oxygenates, a suitable range for conversion of the ketones could be obtained. However, no
transportation fuel precursors. information related to carbon balance was reported.

Results and Discussion In this work, the experiments were conducted in a Parr
reactor in more controlled and quantitative ways than previous
1. Hydroxyalkylation of m-cresol/cyclopentanone
studies with shorter reaction times and direct measurement of
a) Product distribution over solid acid Amberlyst 15: the carbon balance. The results summarized in Figure 2 confirm
that solid acids such as Amberlyst 15 are capable of producing
The hydroxyalkylation of m-cresol and CPO yields various
acceptable yields of AC products (1+2). The yield of the
cyclopentyl-substituted cresol compounds including (3), (4), (5)
monomer (1) increases over time, reaching 16% after 6 hrs of
and (6) (HAA products) as shown in path B Scheme 1. Two
reaction. The amount of dimer product (2) is very small, reaching
products from self-aldol condensation of cyclopentanone
only about 1% yield. Excellent carbon balances of 94-97% were
including (1) and (2) (AC products) were also observed, as
observed in both cases. Although the reaction conditions and
shown in path A. In most cases, the formation of product (2) is
catalyst formulations will need to be optimized to enhance the
negligible compared to that of the other products; therefore, in
yield to coupling compounds, these preliminary results are
most runs, product (1) is the only representative of the self-aldol
promising enough to be considered an interesting approach for
condensation reaction.
biomass conversion, particularly since the acidic environment is
Figure 1 shows the reaction data obtained after 2 h in a commonly found in bio-oil upgrading. The high content of water
batch reactor on Amberlyst 15 in the temperature range 65- in real pyrolysis mixtures would require to operate in biphasic
o
145 C at a 2:1 m-cresol/CPO molar feed ratio. The results system [50]. Implementation of the concepts derived from model
demonstrate that the acid resin displays an acceptable activity, compound studies in the separation and conversion of bio-oil to
with conversion increasing from 8 to 38% as the temperature fuel may demonstrate the advantage of using solid emulsifier
increases, keeping a good carbon balance. For instance, 13% materials such as hydrophobized zeolites [51, 52] nanotubes,
CPO conversion was obtained at 100oC, with 40% selectivity to and other amphiphilic catalysts that stabilize emulsions [53] to
AC products, 60% selectivity to HAA products and a carbon achieve maximized adducts yields for the reaction.
balance of 98%. Higher temperatures favor the formation of
b) Comparison of different solid acid catalysts:
monomer and dimer coupling products (1, 3, 4, and 5). Above
120oC, the decomposition of the trimer (6) becomes evident and Based on these observations, several solid catalysts with
undesired reactions start to occur. For example, at 145 C, theo different characteristics, including a resin with higher acid
carbon balance dropped from almost 100 to 83 %, most density (Amberlyst 36), a microporous zeolite (H), and a
probably due to polymerization as indicated by the change in mesoporous acid catalyst (SiO2-Al2O3) were investigated and
color of the solution. One problem associated with the use of a compared to a homogeneous catalyst, para-toluene sulfuric acid
resin catalyst like Amberlyst 15 is the decomposition of the (p-TSA) to explore the effect of catalyst topology and acidity. To
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make a proper comparison of selectivity, we adjusted the smaller AC products (93% selectivity) leave the zeolite, while the
reaction temperature to reach an overall CPO conversion of HAA, if formed will remain trapped inside the microporous
about 15 %. Specifically, the activity comparison was made at structure. It is suggestive that the homogenous p-TSA exhibits a
o o
100 C for Amberlyst and p-TSA, and at 250 C for H, SiO2-Al2O3. higher selectivity to large HAA products (3 + 4 + 5 + 6) (Figure
The results are summarized in Table 1 and Figure 3. Amberlyst 3) in comparison to the behavior of solid catalysts. More
36 shows an analogous behavior to Amberlyst 15, reaching 15% specifically, at comparable CPO conversion (15-20%) the yields
CPO conversion with selectivities of 38% and 62% for AC and of 3, 4, 5 and 6 were 2.4%, 1.7%, 0.16% and 0.4% on Amberlyst
HAA products, respectively. Interestingly, while (at 100C) 36 while they are much higher, reaching 5.2%, 1.3%, 1.8% and
Amberlyst resins catalyzed the generation of both AC and HAA, 12.4%, respectively with the homogeneous catalyst p-TSA.
the zeolite H and amorphous SiO 2-Al2O3 yielded only AC
To check the effect of reaction temperature to the product
products (at 250C).
distribution, reaction runs were conducted on zeolite H at
It is possible that the drop in HAA selectivity might be due to different temperatures (100-250C). As shown in the Table 1,
different steric constrains in the catalysts. For instance, the selectivity on this zeolite did vary with temperature. Higher
Amberlyst resins have large cavities that may allow the selectivity toward HAA is favorable as the temperature
formation and desorption of the relatively large HAA products deceases. This observation agrees with those obtained from
(see example of products 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Scheme 1). By homogeneous catalysts in which low temperature favors the
contrast, the more constrained Zeolite H may only allow the formation of HAA products rather than AC products.

Table 1. Activity and Average pore size of sceened catalysts

Catalyst T, oC Conversion, Selectivity, % Yield, % Acid Conversion Carbon Average

% density, per site balance, pore
AC HAA AC HAA
mmol/gcat (mol.L- % size, nm
1
.mmolacid-1)
p-TSAa 100 20 9.3 90.7 2.9 27.5 5.8c 1.3 97 -
Amberlyst 15a 100 12.8 39.6 60.4 3 3.5 4.7c 0.6 94 29c
Amberlyst 36a 100 15.3 38 62 4.5 4.6 4.9c 0.7 94 24c
100 6.8 - - - - 2.02 90
b
120 11 71.1 28.9 0.2 0.045 d
3.38 93
Zeolite H 200 11.7 85 15 2.9 0.2 0.75 3.48 92 0.6f
250 16.3 93 7 11 0.5 4.86 94
100 0.76 - - - - 0.32 98
150 1.14 - - - - 0.48 99
SiO2-Al2O3b 200 5.42 99 1 0.9 0.004 0.53e 2.29 95 4.8g
250 17 98 2 10.4 0.1 7.26 96
280 33.8 95 5 21.6 0.7 14.3 85
a
Glass reactor; bParr reactor; creported by manufacturer; dmeasured by TPD-isopropyl amine eref [54] fref. [55], gmeasured by BET-N2
ads./des.

However, at this point, it can be concluded that although the transfer limitations, the apparent activation energy is only
temperature can change product distribution, the porous 4.5kJ/mol. Moreover, when the product yields are used for the
characteristic of solid acid catalysts is the dominant factor that Arrhenius plot (Figure 4b), apparent activation energy values of
o
makes AC products dominant (i.e., over 70% sel. at 120 C). At about 90 and 140 kJ/mol are obtained for AC and HAA
o
100 C, no adducts were observed. In the case of SiO 2-Al2O3, the formation, respectively.
same analysis was conducted with temperature range from 100
The low activity exhibited by the amorphous silica-alumina
to 280oC. Interestingly, high selectivity towards AC is observed in
catalyst towards formation of HAA products could be due to the
all cases. With a large pore size, (average 4.8 nm) and rather
relatively weak acid strength of this material. Indeed, calorimetry
slow reactions, one would not expect internal mass transfer
measurements of ammonia adsorption on SiO 2-Al2O3 give
limitations on this mesoporous material. As shown in Figure 4a,
evidence of much lower density of strong acid sites than
the variation of overall CPO conversion as a function of
Amberlyst or any zeolite [56, 57]. Therefore, the acid strength of
temperature indicates an apparent activation energy of about 50
the mesoporous silica-alumina might not be high enough for
kJ/mol, while on the H zeolite, which is clearly affected by mass
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catalyzing HAA reaction. That is, only materials with strong The relative rate between two pathways depends on factors
acidity and large pore structure could be effective catalysts for such as feed ratio, temperature, etc. Moreover, the porous
the HAA reaction. characteristic of each solid catalyst places different influence in
the diffusion of formed products and so on the obtained product
To gain a deeper understanding of the pathway for HAA
distribution. A series of experiments was conducted with a
product formation on zeolite H, several separate runs were
homogeneous catalyst (para-toluene sulfuric acid) to get an
conducted at 250C with varying amounts of catalyst. As seen in
insight into the nature of this reaction. In this case, there is no
Figure 5a, b the yields of HAA and AC products uniformly
possible role of porous cavities affecting the product distribution
increase with the amount of catalyst, as expected. At the same
as in solid acid catalysts. As shown in Figure 6a, at low
time, it is observed that while the selectivity to product (3)
temperatures (e.g., 60oC), hydroxyalkylation products (HAA)
dominates at low yields (at the lowest catalyst mass) the
dominate, with selectivity above 90%. As temperature increases,
selectivity to products (4) and (5) increased with overall
the selectivity toward aldol condensation products (AC) slowly
conversion which demonstrates the expected series/parallel
increases (up to 150oC) but beyond this temperature, it jumps
sequence for this reaction, i.e., CPO (3); followed by (3) (4)
dramatically from 20% at 200oC to 60% at 250oC. The change of
or (3) (5). In this case, no traces of product (6) were
product distribution with increasing temperature in this case
observed
might be due to the low stability of the HAA C-C coupling
Another series of independent runs was conducted, products (the alcohol) that makes it easily decomposed back to
keeping the catalyst mass constant while varying temperatures. CPO and m-cresol at high temperature (250oC) before
As shown in Figure 5c, contrary to the behavior of Amberlyst 15 dehydration. This results in more abundant AC products at
and 36, which were able to achieve measureable yields (7-9%) 250oC.
o
at low temperatures (100-120 C), the H catalyst only generated
At the lowest temperature, only the C-C coupling monomer
small amounts of condensation products at these temperatures
(3) is observed in the products. However, at 100 oC, the trimer
(traces of AC and HAA products were detected). It is
(6) is formed easily, becoming one of the most abundant
conceivable that the diffusion of these large products out of the
products and reaching 45% selectivity. As the temperature is
micro-porous structure is greatly hindered at low temperatures in
further increased, the selectivity to (6) greatly decreases with the
this zeolite, leading to some disappearance of CPO, but without
other products increasing, even when the reactant conversion
the formation of any noticeable coupling products. Figure 5d
remained unchanged. It is clear that (6) starts decomposing
shows the distribution of HAA products from zeolite H as a
back to monomer (3). Indeed, negligible amounts of the trimer
function of reaction temperature. At low temperatures (100-
o
(6) are detected at 250oC. Likewise, as shown previously
120 C), the major product is (5), which is necessarily produced
(Figure 1), similar decomposition of the trimer (6) is observed
from product (3). By contrast, at higher temperatures, the
over the solid acid Amberlyst 15 at temperatures above 120 oC.
selectivity towards product (5) decreases while that to (3)
Figure 6b also shows similar trends for the trimers (4) and (5),
increases. Clearly, at high enough temperatures, product (5)
which initially increase with temperature, but then decrease,
begins to decompose via C-C cleavage yielding back product
reaching a maximum selectivity at 200oC (~20%).
(3). The low selectivity towards product (4) might be due to the
higher abundance of m-cresol with respect to CPO (m-cresol/CP The possible reaction mechanism includes four primary
feed ratio = 2:1). steps: (a) protonation of cyclopentanone on acid sites to form an
enolate, (b) C-C coupling of the activated CPO with another
In fact, as shown in Table 1, the carbon balance is over
CPO or m-cresol to form condensation products (ACol and
90% for all cases. That is, by using a less reactive intermediate
HAAol), (c) deprotonation, and (d) dehydration of the resulting
such as cyclopentanone, not only the carbon losses can be
alcohols to generate the AC and HAA products. It is possible that
minimized, but valuable condensation products can be obtained
the rate limiting step for each reaction could be one of those.
with less humins formation.
However, in the presence of acid catalysts the dehydration step
c) Effect of temperature on the competition between self-aldol is relatively fast. It should be noted that the relative activation
condensation (AC) and hydroxyalkylation (HAA): energy between each step could be shifted, depending on

The investigated reaction, in fact, is complicated since two catalysts with different acid strength. More detailed kinetic and

possible parallel reactions are taking place at the same time.

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theoretical studies are required on each individual reaction to due to the decomposition of dimer/trimer at the high
obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the system. temperatures and long reaction time used in this experiment.
The observed alkanes represent over 39% selectivity of the
upgraded liquid. In fact, hydrogenated products derived from m-
d) Effect of feed ratio:
cresol, such as methylcyclohexane or methylcyclohexanol, also
Both AC and HAA can yield products with longer carbon fall into gasoline range (C 7-C12). Therefore, the whole applicable
chains, which can subsequently be hydrodeoxygenated to products in the fuel range would account for 90% of the
molecules that directly fall in the gasoline/diesel range. In some upgraded liquid. More interestingly, the carbon balance for the
applications, in may be desirable to produce a narrow molecular HAA and HDO steps are 96% and 95%, respectively, resulting in
weight distribution. In this case, our results show that a narrower over 90% efficiency for the whole catalytic upgrading process,
molecular weight distribution can indeed be obtained by which starts from CPO and results in with drop-in liquid fuel
adjusting the m-cresol/CPO feed ratio. As illustrated in Figure 7, products. This promising result illustrates the great potential of
as the m-cresol/CPO increases from 2:1 to 5:1, the yield of AC this strategy for biomass-derived liquid fuel production.
products drops from 4.5% to 1.4% while that of HAA products
increases from 3.7 to 5.4%. Interestingly, when the m-
cresol/CPO ratio increases to 7:1, only HAA products are Conclusions
obtained with no traces of AC products.
The Piancatelli rearrangement of furanic compounds to
2. Hydrodeoxygenation of coupling products obtained in CPO represents a very attractive biomass upgrading strategy
the first step that pre-stabilizes reactive molecules such as furfural into a
useful and less reactive ketone. Compared to conventional
Hydrodeoxygenation is the final step after accomplishing
hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis strategies, this approach
the desired molecular weight via C-C coupling. For practical
demands less energy and less H2 consumption. In addition, the
implementation as fuels, the coupling compounds generated
high water and acid content of bio-oil are in fact favorable for this
from hydroxyalkylation would need to be saturated and
conversion, which makes the process more appealing in terms
deoxygenated to produce alkanes with properties similar to
of practical implementation. The production of this stable
those derived from petroleum energy sources. To demonstrate
intermediate can be followed by C-C bond formation reactions,
the sequence, first, the C-C coupling step was carried via HAA
such as self-aldol condensation or hydroxyalkylation with
reaction on a 3g Amberlyst 36 sample in a Parr reactor (150 oC,
phenolics-derived fractions. When the C-C bond forming
m-cresol/CPO=2:1, 12h). In this step, the goal is to obtain a
process is followed by a hydrodeoxygenation step a mixture of
reasonable yield of coupling products, which can be used later
C10-C16 hydrocarbons, which are in the gasoline/diesel range can
as feedstock for the HDO upgrading. In this case, 51% CPO
be effectively obtained. For example, when the product stream
conversion with a wide range of long-chain oxygenates was
from the AC/HAA reaction of CPO and m-cresol was followed by
obtained, as shown in Figure 8, with (1) and (3) as major
HDO on a bifunctional catalyst over 90% efficiency of the whole
products, accounting for 18% and 14% yield, respectively.
catalytic upgrading process starting from CPO was
To carry out the HDO upgrading step, 2 ml of the liquid demonstrated, which highlights the potential of this strategy for
product of the previous step was diluted in 118 ml of undecane future biofuel applications.
solvent together with 500 mg of 2% Pd/Al 2O3 catalysts. The
catalyst was reduced at 150oC for 3 h under 400 psia of H2. The The major obstacle of this approach is that the large
o
HDO run was conducted at 250 C in the batch reactor for 12 h. organic molecules produced by the HAA reaction are trapped in
The most abundant products were cyclopentane and methyl microporous catalysts, particularly at low temperatures.
cyclohexane, which come from the hydrogenation/dehydration of Thermally stable zeolites that can be operated at higher
CPO and m-cresol. Long-chain hydrocarbon products include temperatures show a lower degree of trapping, but the problem
fully saturated C10 alkanes, C12 cyclic and C12 alkane products still subsists. Further research on acidic materials with
which are generated from the ring opening of the saturated hierarchical structures with a proper mesoporous/microporous
species (1) and hydrogenation of (3), followed by the ring balance that minimizes the diffusion path of large adducts out of
opening, respectively (Scheme 2 and Figure 9). Trace amount the catalyst cavities would be desirable.
of carbon chain longer than 12 was observed, which is probably
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Experimental Section CCPO -in - CCPO -out Ci n
X= Yi =
The conversion of furfural to cyclopentanone was carried CCPO -in ;
CCPO - in ;
out in a Parr reactor at 150 oC, 14-40 bar for 6 hrs in water
solvent over 0.15 g 2% Pd-Fe/SiO2 catalyst, at an initial
Ci
concentration of furfural of 200 mM. The hydroxyalkylation of m- Si =
cresol with cyclopentanone was conducted at atmospheric
Ci
pressure in a glass reactor in the temperature range 65-140 oC,
The carbon balance for the HAA reaction was calculated as:
for 2 hrs in the presence of Amberlyst 15, Amberlyst 36, or p-
CCPO products + CCPO - out
TSA (Sigma Aldrich) catalysts. Alternatively, the reaction was Carbonabalance =
CCPO -in
conducted in a Parr reactor at 100-250 oC, under 300 psia N2 for
The carbon balance for the HDO step was calculated as:
2 hrs in the presence of Zeolite H (Zeolyst) or SiO 2-Al2O3
(Sigma Aldrich). In all cases, the amount of catalyst used was
Carbonabalance =
C n i Ci product
0.15 g and the feed was either pure CPO or m-cresol/CPO
mixtures. The effect of m-cresol/CPO ratio (2:1, 5:1, and 7:1) on
C n i Ci feed

the product distribution was examined in the Parr reactor at

where CCPO(in, out): Concentration of cyclopentanone before and
120oC, 300 psia N2 for 2 hrs in the presence of 1 g Amberlyst 15 after reaction;
in decalin solvent. The aldol condensation of cyclopentanone Ci: Concentration of each product;
n: Number of cyclopentanone molecule in molecular
was examined in Parr reactor at 100oC and 300 psia N2 for 2 and
structure of products;
6 hrs. 0.5M of CPO in decalin solvent over 1 g Amberlyst 15. nCi: Number of carbons in molecular structure

The product mixture was analyzed by Shimadzu QP2010S

gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and quantified Acknowledgements
by GC-FID Agilent 6890 equipped with a flame ionization
The authors thank the Department of Energy for funding the
detector for quantification. Both GCs were equipped with a
experimental part of this work under grant DE-SC0004600 and
Zebron ZB-1701 column with dimensions of 60m x 0.25 mm x
the theoretical part under grant DE-EE0006287 of the Bioenergy
0.25 m.
Technology Office CHASE program.
The conversion (X), yield and selectivity were calculated as:
Keywords: C-C coupling 1 hydroxyalkylation 2 phenolics 3
cyclopentanone 4 biofuels 5
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Layout 1:

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Table of content Tuong V. Bui, Dr. Tawan Snooknoi,
Prof. Daniel E. Resasco*
We are here proposing an attractive
strategy to effectively upgrade two Page No. Page No.
fractions of torrefraction
simultaneously via hydroxyalkylation/ Simultaneous upgrading of furanics
adol condensation reactions. As the ((Insert TOC Graphic here: max. width: and phenolics via
results, after HDO processing, 5.5 cm; max. height: 5.0 cm)) hydroxyalkylation /aldol
saturated alkanes with carbon chain condensation reactions
ranging from C10-C16 could be
obtained, which could be used as
transportation fuel or refinery feed.
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