(535d) Oxophilic Metal Oxide Modified Iridium Catalysts for Selective Production of Renewable Hydrocarbons

Due to fossil fuel depletion, global warming and environmental problems, conversion of biomass into renewable hydrocarbons to supplement or gradually replace petroleum is highly desirable.¹ Hydrocarbons with different carbon range and structures (linear or branched) can be used as jet-fuel (C₈-C₁₆), diesel (C₉-C₂₂) and lubricant base oils (C₂₀-C₅₀). In recent years, great efforts have been devoted to the synthesis of various hydrocarbons from furan platforms by C-C coupling and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). The HDO step is more challenging due to the involvement of high reaction temperature and pressure. We previously reported that rhenium oxide modified iridium (Ir-ReO_x/SiO₂) was an effective catalyst for the HDO of high carbon furylmethanes to C₁₂-C₁₅ branched hydrocarbons.² However, rhenium is expensive and its replacement with a cheap metal can make renewable hydrocarbons cost-competitive and preserve rare metals. In this study, we show that a molybdenum oxide modified iridium catalyst (Ir-MoO_x/SiO₂) achieves comparable HDO performance as the Ir-ReO_x/SiO₂ and produces up to 90% jet-fuel range alkanes. Optimization of reaction conditions, catalyst recycling, extensive catalyst characterization and the reaction mechanism will be discussed.

1. W. Huber, S. Iborra, A. Corma, Chem. Rev., 2006, 106, 4044-4098.
2. S. Liu, S. Dutta, W. Zheng, N. S. Gould, Z. Cheng, B. Xu, B. Saha, D. G. Vlachos, ChemSusChem, 2017, 10, 3225-3234.