Conversion Of Furfural To C₈ Alkane:study Of The Synergistic Effect Of Acid-base And Bimetallic Catalyst

The energy requirements have tremendously increased these days,and for fulfilling these demands the researchers are trying to develop new renewable sources.Among many other renewable resources,biomass is by far the most sustainable and economically feasible resource and thus has been getting much attention worldwide.It has the potential advantages in alleviating environmental pollution,slowing global warming,and reducing our dependence on the limited fossil fuels.Therefore,getting liquid fuel from biomass in replacement of the traditional diesel and petroleum-based gasoline is an important research field nowadays.The objective of this study is to produce fuel from furfural,a platform molecule of biomass which has rich functional groups and serves as a significant intermediate to biofuels and a large number of useful chemicals.Conversion of furfural to C8 alkane involving aldol condensation reaction and hydrodeoxygenation reaction was carried out over conventional Layered Double Hydroxide(LDHs)and transition metal doped LDHs.The main contents of this dissertation are as follows:(1)Synthesize the acid-base catalyst to catalyze the aldol condensation reaction of furfural and acetone.For synthesis of acid-base catalyst Zr was introduced into the MgAl-LDHs which formed MgAlZr-LDHs and after calcination,effect of acidity and alkalinity of the magnesium-aluminum composite oxide was studied.The reaction was carried out and the acid-base property of the catalyst was correlated with the catalytic results.It has been observed that the addition of Zr improved the reaction rate.The acid-base property of catalyst was studied by acid-base analysis.Additionally,aldol condensation reaction was carried out in the presence of aforementioned catalyst,achieving the highest product yield of 99%.CoMgAlZr-LDH was prepared with different Mg/Zr ratio whereas the proportion of Co and Al were kept same.After calcining CoMgAlZr-LDH,the influence for acid-base properties of magnesium aluminum composite oxide was studied and its impact on the reaction was investigated and discussed.(2)Designing of a catalyst for hydrodeoxygenation reaction,where hydrodeoxygenation reaction signifies the occurrence of hydrogenation and deoxygenation reaction simultaneously.The composite metal oxide supported Co based catalysts carried out the hydrodeoxygenation reaction to a certain extent only.In order to achieve further deoxidation,CuCo bimetal was introduced into the hydrotalcite layers.The reaction was carried out with different ratios of CuCo and the synergistic bimetallic effect was studied.The CuCo alloy catalyst had the corresponding geometry as required by the reactant to undergo hydrodeoxygenation reaction,achieving fully deoxygenated alkane yield to maxima of 93%.Based on this research idea,it was expected to construct a catalyst with matching geometry of metal atoms for the reactants.(3)Through the first two studies,the multifunctional catalyst was subjected to a one-pot catalytic reaction.The catalyst played a synergistic role of acid and base and metal coordination,which catalyzed the aldol condensation and hydrodeoxygenation reaction of furfural with acetone,and the yield of fully deoxygenated alkane was 60%.