Development of Intermediates for High‐Energy Content New Biomass‐Derived Jet and Diesel Fuels with a Robust Rapid Green Reaction

Abstract

Biofuel, as a renewable energy, has gained much attention due to the threat of exhaustion of fossil sources and the enormous pressure of environmental pollution. However, biofuels often suffer from low densities and high volatilities, which limit their application in important liquid transportation fuels, for example, jet and diesel fuels. At present, the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass‐derived chemicals has become a promising approach to produce high‐density jet and diesel biofuels. Herein a rapid, green Michael addition reaction is developed for constructing intermediates of a series of new high‐density biofuels with volumetric neat heat of combustion (VNHOC) values. The reactions are performed under solvent‐free conditions with commercially cheap tetrabutylammonium bromide (0.05 eq) and K3PO4·3H2O (0.03 eq) as a catalyst and a base, respectively, to afford products with good to excellent yields of 89%–99%. The theoretical calculation indicates that the VNHOC values of the potential biofuels (up to 39.06 MJ L−1) are comparable to those of most state‐of‐the‐art biofuels and commercial jet fuels that are obtained from fossil sources. This method may pave a new way of investigating high‐density biofuels with accurate structures and high‐energy contents.

Tandem Reactions for the Synthesis of High-Density Polycyclic Biofuels with a Double/Triple Hexane Ring

“…The density and NHOC of all the products were estimated with theoretical methods, which have high accuracy as demonstrated in our previous works. 62 − 64 As shown in Figure 4 , the densities are in the range of 0.78–0.88 g/cm 3 , which are close to those of state-of-the-art high-density artificial fuels such as JP-10 (0.94 g/cm 3 ) and RJ-5 (0.94 g/cm 3 ). The estimated NHOC values are in the range of 44.0–46.0 MJ/kg, which are also among the values for top-level petroleum based fuels (JP-4, JP-5, and RJ-4).…”

Boosting the activity of UiO-66(Zr) by defect engineering: efficient aldol condensation of furfural and MIBK for the production of bio jet-fuel precursors

“…11,12 Lignocellulosic bio-jet fuel can be synthesized starting from renewable platform chemicals like FAL by C-C coupling reactions and subsequent hydrodeoxygenation/hydrogenation. 13,14 C-C coupling reactions include alkylation, 15 aldol condensation, 16 oligomerization, 17 Michael reaction, 18 and Diels-Alder reaction. 19 Among them, aldol condensation is one of the most frequently explored routes for the synthesis of bio-jet fuel from FAL due to the availability of biomass-derived ketone substrates, the relatively moderate reaction conditions, and the possibility of being catalyzed either by acids or bases.…”

Recent Advances in Metallic Catalyst Materials for Electrochemical Upgrading of Furfurals to Drop‐in Biofuels: A Mini Review

“…To accomplish complete biofuels utilization into aviation sector, the produced biofuels needs to meet certain sustainability requirement to ascertain social, environmental, and economic performance. [ 13–15 ]…”

“…To accomplish complete biofuels utilization into aviation sector, the produced biofuels needs to meet certain sustainability requirement to ascertain social, environmental, and economic performance. [13][14][15] Biokerosene, bioethanol, and other biofuels in general, are mostly produced by fermentation of energy crops such as sugar cane, and maize, which means that agriculture shifts toward fuel production instead of food production. In order to maximize the outcome, fertilizer is used which often contains/releases NO x…”