Catal Lett (2012) 142:664–666
DOI 10.1007/s10562-012-0816-2
Catalytic Conversion of Furan to Gasoline-Range Aliphatic
Hydrocarbons via Ring Opening and Decarbonylation Reactions
Catalyzed by Pt/c-Al O
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Ron C. Runnebaum
Jonathan Doan David E. Block
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Tarit Nimmanwudipong
Bruce C. Gates
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Received: 8 March 2012 / Accepted: 20 March 2012 / Published online: 10 April 2012
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract Conversion of furan in the presence of H2
catalyzed by Pt/c-Al O at 573 K and 1.4 bar leads to the
formation of alkanes and alkenes, some in the gasoline-
aromatics in a fast pyrolysis process with HZSM-5 catalyst
at temperatures ranging from 673 to 873 K [7]. Furan was
proposed as an intermediate in the conversion of furfural to
butane with various silica-supported metal catalysts [5].
We now report the first observation of furan conversion
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range, including C hydrocarbons, butenes, propene, and
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propane.
to C gasoline-range aliphatic hydrocarbons.
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Keywords Biomass conversion Á Processes and reactions Á
Furan conversion Á Hydrocarbons from furan
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Experimental
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Introduction
Reactions catalyzed by Pt/c-Al O (205966-100G, Sigma-
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Aldrich, 1 wt% Pt, surface area 206 m g , platinum
dispersion 0.25) or HY zeolite [CBV 720, Zeolyst, Si/
Al = 15.0 (atomic)] powders were carried out in a once-
through packed-bed flow reactor under the following con-
ditions, with furan (Sigma-Aldrich, 99 %) vaporized at
305 K into a flowing gas stream: temperature, 573 K;
pressure, 1.4 bar; catalyst mass, 50.2–200.8 mg; gas feed
The goal of converting biomass to fuels has motivated
extensive recent research on the catalytic reactions of
whole cellulosic biomass and of sugars formed by decon-
struction of biomass. Furan is an important product in the
catalytic fast pyrolysis of cellulose [1] and in the catalytic
conversion of sugars [2, 3] and sugar-derived products such
as furfural [4, 5]. Furfural is an important product in the
conversion of cellulose-derived sugars catalyzed by solids
in aqueous slurries [6]. Our goal was to go beyond this
work to consider catalytic reactions of furan and test it as a
potential intermediate in biofuels synthesis.
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(30 % H , 70 % N ) flow rate, 3.0 9 10 mol min
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;
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furan flow rate, 1.65 9 10 mol min . Product streams
were analyzed periodically by gas chromatography and gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry. The reaction system,
analytical instrumentation, and data analyzes have been
reported [8].
Conversion of furan catalyzed by a solid acid, HZSM-5,
leads to benzofuran and polycyclic aromatics [4]. Furan
can also be converted into light aliphatics (C –C ) and
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Results
R. C. Runnebaum Á T. Nimmanwudipong Á J. Doan Á
D. E. Block Á B. C. Gates (&)
Product analyses (Table 1) show that benzofuran was the
only significant product in the conversion of furan in the
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,
University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
e-mail: bcgates@ucdavis.edu
absence of H when the catalyst was HY zeolite; this acid-
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catalyzed dehydration is well known [4, 7]. But when the
catalyst was platinum supported on the acidic c-Al O and
H was co-fed, other products were formed (Table 1); the
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D. E. Block
Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California,
Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
unexpected result is the formation of C aliphatics.
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