Hydrodeoxygenation of furfural-acetone condensation adducts to tridecane over platinum catalysts

The total hydrodeoxygenation of furfural-acetone condensation adduct (F(2)A) for obtaining tridecane is studied in this work. Three different Pt catalysts (using alumina, activated carbon, and graphite-MgZr oxide composite as supports) were tested using acetone as solvent (4.5 mmol/L of adduct) in a stirred batch reactor at 493 K and 5.5 MPa. Best results were obtained with Pt/Al2O3, yielding 21.5% of n-tridecane after 24 h reaction time, with carbon balances close to 96%. The performance of the carbon supported catalysts was poorer (both in terms of conversion, tridecane selectivity and carbon mass balance closure) mainly because of the strong adsorption of reactants and reaction intermediates, whereas the MgZr-HSAG also present activity for the undesired cleavage of C-C bonds of the condensation adducts. A kinetic model, considering serial-parallel reaction steps and first order dependence on the organic reactant has been successfully applied for modelling the results obtained with the three catalysts. The dependence of the kinetic constants on the catalyst properties suggest that metal dispersion and the concentration of weak acid sites are the main parameters affecting catalyst performance. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.