Effects of furanic compounds from biomass pyrolysis on ketonization reaction: The role of oxygenated side groups

Ketonization of biomass-derived oxygenates is promising for sustainable production of platform chemicals, but the catalyst activity will be severely inhibited by furanic compounds. To investigate the mechanism of the inhibition effect, furanic compounds with different side functional groups were chosen for co-ketonization with propanoic acid over CeO 2 . Results from 12 h continuous reaction showed that conversion of propanoic acid changed slightly when furan was co-fed with propanoic acid, while decreased significantly from 100 % for sole propanoic acid feeding to <55 % when co-feeding with furfural and furfuralcohol. Therefore, the inhibition ability followed the order of furfural ≈ furfuralcohol ≫ furan, which agreed well with the coke yield on the spent catalysts (51 %, 47 %, and 22 %, respectively). DFT calculation indicated that furfural and furfuralcohol, with the adsorption energy of 17–19 kJ·mol −1 , were much easier to adsorb on the catalyst than furan (11 kJ·mol −1 ). However, the lack of α-H of these furanic compounds led to their conversion into aromatic coke components. It is evidenced that the oxygenated side groups, rather than the furan ring, are responsible for the inhibition effect. Successive ketonization-combustion-ketonization tests revealed that simple air calcination can hardly recover the activity of the spent CeO 2 . This investigation gives new insights into the inhibitory impact of furans on the ketonization activity.