Synthesis of high-grade Jet fuel blending precursors by aldol condensation of lignocellulosic ketones using HfTPA/MCM-41 with strong acids and enhanced stability

Upgrading lignocellulosic ketones to Jet fuel precursors by aldol condensation is the key step for the synthesis of high-grade bio-Jet fuels. State-of-art works are confined in pure feedstock used, catalysis sites leaching and coking. Therefore, we synthesized a strong solid acid HfTPA/MCM-41 and used it to catalyze aldol condensation of lignocellulosic ketone mixture to bio-jet fuel blending precursors, where 80 %Hf 1.5 TPA/MCM-41 shows better activity than 80 %HPW/MCM-41 and commercial zeolites with 66.8 % yield of products obtained. The good performance of the catalyst is ascribed to good acid properties, large surface area and especially new strong L acids and good stability based on anti-coking and water tolerance by Hf doping, which changes the electronic structure of the catalyst surface to efficiently activate C O bond of ketones to form a metal enolate intermediate and anchoring HPW from leaching. This work demonstrates an efficient way to synthesize high-performance acid catalyst applied in bio-jet fuel synthesis.