Tungsten oxide decorated silica-supported iridium catalysts combined with HZSM-5 toward the selective conversion of cellulose to C6 alkanes.

Herein, WOx-decorated Ir/SiO2 (W/Ir = 0.06) and HZSM-5 were coupled to selectively convert microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) into C6 alkanes. A 92.8% yield of liquid alkanes including an 85.3% yield of C6 alkanes was produced at 210 °C. Cellulose hydrolysis, glucose hydrogenation and sorbitol hydrodeoxygenation were integrated to produce alkanes via a sorbitol route. Ir-WOx/SiO2 showed high performance for hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation reactions after hydrolysis catalyzed by HZSM-5. The intimate contact between WOx and Ir enhanced the synergistic interaction through the electron transfer from Ir to WOx. The interaction strengthened the reduction capability of Ir for hydrogenations, as well as improved the adsorption and activation of C-O bonds on reduced WOx for deoxygenations. The monotungstate WOx species provided moderate Lewis acids to cooperate with Ir to accelerate hydrodeoxygenations with alleviated retro-aldol condensation to yield more C6 alkanes.

High performance of Mo-promoted Ir/SiO2 catalysts combined with HZSM-5 toward the conversion of cellulose to C5/C6 alkanes.

In this study, the Mo-promoted Ir/SiO2 (Ir-MoOx/SiO2) catalysts combined with the zeolite HZSM-5 were used for the direct conversion of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) to liquid fuel (C5/C6 alkanes) in n-dodecane/H2O system. A synergistic effect was formed between the partially reduced MoOx species and the Ir particles, which effectively promoted the catalytic activity of Ir/SiO2 catalyst. When the Mo/Ir molar ratio was 0.5, a high yield of C5/C6 alkanes (91.7%) was achieved at 210 â„ƒ for 12 h. In addition, the main component of C5/C6 alkanes was n-hexane, which was proven to be obtained by the hydrogenolysis of the key intermediate, sorbitol, formed from the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of MCC.