Energy-efficient production of 1-octanol from biomass-derived furfural-acetone in water

Abstract

An energy-efficient catalytic system for the one-pot production of 1-octanol from biomass-derived furfural-acetone (FFA) under mild conditions in water was developed, by sequential hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis over a hydrophilic Pd/NbOPO₄ catalyst. A strategy of creating an intentional “phase problem” has been employed to prevent the over-hydrogenolysis of 1-octanol into n-octane and therefore increased the selectivity to 1-octanol. The effects of reaction conditions as well as a variety of noble-metal loaded bifunctional catalysts have been systematically investigated to maximize the yield of 1-octanol. Moreover, the addition of liquid acids to the catalytic system further enhanced the selectivity towards the formation of 1-octanol. There is a strong correlation between the acid strength of an acidic additive and the sum yield of 1-octanol and octane. With the addition of TfOH, the highest yield of 1-octanol (62.7%) was obtained from one-pot conversion of biomass-derived FFA over Pd/NbOPO₄.