Efficient hydro-deoxygenation of lignin derived phenolic compounds over bifunctional catalysts with optimized acid/metal interactions

Abstract

Efficient hydro-deoxygenation (HDO) of lignin derived phenolic compounds was a challenging task due to the incompatibility of the phenolic feedstock and the current hydro-processing catalysts. In this paper, hydro-deoxygenation of lignin derived phenolic compounds over a series of bifunctional catalysts with different metal/acid interactions was firstly carried out. It was found that the distance between the acidic site and noble metal played an important role in the catalytic performance of phenolic hydro-deoxygenation. A highly stable bifunctional catalyst for hydro-deoxygenation of lignin derived phenolic compounds was obtained through simple selective deposition of Pt on alumina in a commonly used Al₂O₃-ZSM-5 nanocomposite. The bifunctional catalyst retained its complete deoxygenation capacity for more than 500 h. The catalyst can also be used for the HDO of various phenolic model compounds and real bio-oil derived from lignin. A correction of the generally accepted “the closer the better” criterion in metal/acid bifunctional catalysts when used in bio-oxygenate HDO was also discussed.