Highly Selective Upgrading of Biomass-Derived Alcohol Mixtures for Jet/Diesel-Fuel Components.

In light of the increasing concern about the energy and environmental problems caused by the combustion of petroleum-based fuels (e.g., jet and diesel fuels), the development of new procedures for their sustainable production from renewable biomass-derived platform compounds has attracted tremendous attention recently. Long-chain ketones/alcohols are promising fuel components owing to the fuel properties that closely resemble those of traditional fuels. The focus of this report is the production of long-chain ketones/alcohols by direct upgrading of biomass-derived short-chain alcohol mixtures (e.g., isopropanol-butanol-ethanol mixtures) in pure water. An efficient Pd catalyst system was developed for these highly selective transformations. Long-chain ketones/alcohols (C8 -C19 ), which can be used as precursors for renewable jet/diesel fuel, were obtained in good-to-high selectivity (>90 %) by using the developed Pd catalyst.