Highly selective catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol to benzene in continuous operation mode

Abstract

Benzene, mostly produced from fossil fuel sources, is an essential chemical to many modern industries. Alternatively to non-renewable methods currently used, the present work explores using fast pyrolysis biomass-derived bio-oils to furnish this valuable platform molecule. Notably, we report for the first time the impact of different operational parameters on the highly selective continuous catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol, a bio-oil model compound, into benzene using a Mo₂C/CNF-based catalyst. The parametric study includes a first evaluation of the effect of the hydrogen pressure (25, 50 and 75 bar), temperature (300, 325 and 350 °C) and weight hourly space velocity (4 and 10 g_org g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹) on the guaiacol conversion and product distribution, and a subsequent long-term evaluation (30 h on stream) of the catalyst under appropriate processing conditions The experimental results revelated that our Mo₂C/CNF was able to achieve a conversion of 90–98% with a relative amount of benzene in the liquid product up to 81% for at least 30 h without any sign of deactivation at 75 bar of H₂ and 350 °C, which is a landmark achievement in the conversion of bio-oil derived molecules into platform chemicals.