Hart, Abarasi, Onwudili, Jude, Yildirir, Eyup and Hashemnezhad, Seyed E. (2025). Energy-dense sustainable aviation fuel-range hydrocarbons from cyclohexanone as a biomass-derived feedstock via sequential catalytic aldol condensation and hydrodeoxygenation. Chemical Engineering Journal, 509 ,
Abstract
Climate change is the main driver for sustainable aviation fuels production as a means of decarbonising/defossilising the sector. In this work, several catalysts have been screened to produce aviation fuel (C6-C16) component hydrocarbons from cyclohexanone, a model compound of lignin-derived bio-oils. Using a two-stage two-pot approach, up to 99 % cyclohexanone conversion was achieved in the presence of hydrogen gas. In the first stage, catalytic activities of NbOPO4, Al2O3, SiO2, and ZrO2-SiO2 to promote aldol condensation were tested at 160 °C for 3 h. The NbOPO4 exhibited the highest selectivity towards C-C coupling adducts with mainly C12 to C18. In the second stage, 30 wt% Ni catalysts on three different supports and 5 wt% Pd/Al2O3 were used to catalyse the hydrogenation of the first-stage adducts at 300 °C for 3 h. The 30 wt%Ni/NbOPO4 was most effective, promoting the formation of bi-cycloalkanes, alkyl aromatic, and partially hydrogenated polyaromatic hydrocarbons. In comparison, a one-pot two-step approach was tested by sequentially reacting cyclohexanone with hydrogen gas over the two temperatures for 3 h each, using 30 wt%Ni/NbOPO4 as catalyst. Reacting cyclohexanone with 10 wt% bio-oil samples led to significantly reduced first stage conversion, and enhanced yields of single C-C coupled oxygenates and almost no hydrocarbons in the second stage. Overall, combination of catalysts and hydrogen gas over staged reactions has effectively converted pure cyclohexanone into naphthene-rich liquid hydrocarbons and cyclohexanone/bio-oil mixed feedstocks into their oxygenated precursors. These results support potential targeted production of bio-derived sustainable alternative fuels for the defossilisation of aviation industry.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.161494 |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry College of Engineering & Physical Sciences College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) Aston University (General) |
Funding Information: | This work was supported by Innovate UK Energy Catalyst Round 8: Clean Energy − Experimental Development (Project Number 75521) and Innovate UK Energy Catalyst Round 9 – Mid Stage (Project Number 10047783). |
Additional Information: | Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Aldol condensation,Cyclohexanone,Hydrogenation,Lignin-derived bio-oil,Niobium phosphate-based catalysts,Sustainable Aviation fuel-range hydrocarbons,General Chemistry,Environmental Chemistry,General Chemical Engineering,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering |
Publication ISSN: | 1873-3212 |
Last Modified: | 01 Apr 2025 07:12 |
Date Deposited: | 14 Mar 2025 10:19 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://www.sci ... 3162?via%3Dihub
(Publisher URL) http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2025-04-01 |
Published Online Date: | 2025-03-11 |
Accepted Date: | 2025-03-10 |
Authors: |
Hart, Abarasi
Onwudili, Jude ( ![]() Yildirir, Eyup Hashemnezhad, Seyed E. |