(74d) Conversion of Biomass-Derived Compounds into Jet Fuel-Range Hydrocarbons Using Hierarchical Zeolite Catalysts

Short-term Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production strategies are being developed to convert fats, oils, lipids and starch sugars to jet fuel-range alkanes. However, starch sugars and vegetable oils are not abundant enough to meet the projected fuel demand. Lignocellulose is a renewable non-edible feedstock, which is highly available and can provide the required aromatics and cycloalkanes to SAFs. In this work, we report the direct hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignocellulosic biomass into liquid alkanes and aromatics in the presence of 10% Ni/H-β zeolite as a catalyst at 270 °C, 3 MPa of H₂ pressure and 6h of residence time. Under these conditions, high yield in liquid alkanes (carbon yield of 25.0 ± 0.9 wt%), with high selectivity toward C₇-C₁₅ cycloalkanes (15.9 ± 0.4 wt%) was observed. We further investigated the performance of the HDO process using 10% Ni loaded in hierarchical H-β (H-β-h) and HY (HY-h) catalysts and compared with their parent counterparts. An in-dept characterization of parental and hierarchical zeolites will be provided. The stability and recyclability of the catalysts will also be discussed.