Carbon-carbon coupling and hydrodeoxygenation during beechwood hydropyrolysis gas upgrading on TiO2: Oxygen vacancies, lewis acidity and basicity

Kishore Rajendran, Ajaikumar Samikannu, Dipika Rajendra Kanchan, Albert Miró I Rovira, Zhihui Li, Petter Tingelstad, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola, Arghya Banerjee, Kumar Ranjan Rout, De Chen

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3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Anatase TiO 2 (TiO 2-A) has been utilized for biomass upgrading processes such as hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and Carbon-Carbon (C-C) coupling reactions (ketonisation and aldol condensation), where Ti-O Lewis acid-base pairs (LABPs) serve as active sites. Altering the metal oxide's reduction state can modify its acid-base properties, yet the effects of oxygen vacancy coverage on TiO 2 during biomass vapor upgrading remain unclear. This study investigates the dynamics between C-C coupling and HDO reactions in the ex-situ upgrading of beechwood pyrolysis vapors at 600 °C and 1 atm. LABPs properties were tuned by varying degrees of oxygen vacancy on TiO 2, and the catalyst was characterized by BET, XRD, NH 3-TPD, CO 2-TPD, H 2-TPR, Raman, UV–vis, SEM-EDX, and FTIR. Our study demonstrated that decreasing the O/Ti ratio (i.e., increasing oxygen vacancies) promotes C–C coupling and HDO reactions. The highest C-C coupling and moderate HDO observed on an O/Ti ratio of 1.7 produced the highest jet-fuel fraction (56.5%) compared to other TiO 2 variants. The C2+ selectivity shifted from 85.2% of hydropyrolysis oil to 99.2 wt%, while the O/C and H/C ratios changed from 0.45 and 1.55 of hydropyrolysis oil to 0.06 and 1.39, respectively, on TiO 2 with an O/Ti ratio of 1.7. The adsorption behavior of the acetone, furan, and guaiacol on LABPs was evaluated on the (1 0 1) plane of A-TiO 2 by DFT, which corroborated the experimental findings. This is the first time a deep correlation has been provided on the influence of oxygen vacancies on the vapor phase upgrading of real biomass feedstock.

Original languageEnglish
Article number157568
JournalChemical Engineering Journal
Volume501
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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