Production of Biomass-Based Automotive Lubricants by Reductive Etherification.

Growing concern with the effects of CO emissions due to the combustion of petroleum-based transportation fuels has motivated the search for means to increase engine efficiency. The discovery of ethers with low viscosity presents an important opportunity to improve engine efficiency and fuel economy. We show here a strategy for the catalytic synthesis of such ethers by reductive etherification/O-alkylation of alcohols using building blocks that can be sourced from biomass.

Synergistic Effects in Bimetallic Palladium-Copper Catalysts Improve Selectivity in Oxygenate Coupling Reactions.

Condensation reactions such as Guerbet and aldol are important since they allow for C-C bond formation and give higher molecular weight oxygenates. An initial study identified Pd-supported on hydrotalcite as an active catalyst for the transformation, although this catalyst showed extensive undesirable decarbonylation. A catalyst containing Pd and Cu in a 3:1 ratio dramatically decreased decarbonylation, while preserving the high catalytic rates seen with Pd-based catalysts.

Co-production of acetone and ethanol with molar ratio control enables production of improved gasoline or jet fuel blends.

The fermentation of simple sugars to ethanol has been the most successful biofuel process to displace fossil fuel consumption worldwide thus far. However, the physical properties of ethanol and automotive components limit its application in most cases to 10-15 vol% blends with conventional gasoline. Fermentative co-production of ethanol and acetone coupled with a catalytic alkylation reaction could enable the production of gasoline blendstocks enriched in higher-chain oxygenates.

Upgrading Lignocellulosic Products to Drop-In Biofuels via Dehydrogenative Cross-Coupling and Hydrodeoxygenation Sequence.

Life-cycle analysis (LCA) allows the scientific community to identify the sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of novel routes to produce renewable fuels. Herein, we integrate LCA into our investigations of a new route to produce drop-in diesel/jet fuel by combining furfural, obtained from the catalytic dehydration of lignocellulosic pentose sugars, with alcohols that can be derived from a variety of bio- or petroleum-based feedstocks. As a key innovation, we developed recyclable transition-metal-free hydrotalcite catalysts to promote the dehydrogenative cross-coupling reaction of furfural and alcohols to give high molecular weight adducts via a transfer hydrogenation-aldol condensation pathway.

Production of an acetone-butanol-ethanol mixture from Clostridium acetobutylicum and its conversion to high-value biofuels.

Clostridium acetobutylicum is a bacterial species that ferments sugar to a mixture of organic solvents (acetone, butanol and ethanol). This protocol delineates a methodology to combine solventogenic clostridial fermentation and chemical catalysis via extractive fermentation for the production of biofuel blendstocks. Extractive fermentation of C.

Catalytic upgrading of biomass-derived methyl ketones to liquid transportation fuel precursors by an organocatalytic approach.

A highly efficient water-tolerant, solid-base catalyst for the self-condensation of biomass-derived methyl ketones to jet-diesel fuel precursors was developed by grafting site-isolated secondary amines on silica-alumina supports. It is shown that apart from the nature and density of amine groups and the spatial separation of the acidic and basic sites, the acidity of the support material plays a critical role in defining the catalytic activity. It is also found that a combination of weakly acidic silanol/aluminol with secondary amine groups can mimic proline catalysts and are more effective in catalyzing the selective dimerization reaction than the combination of amines with organic acids.