Catalytic hydrotreatment of humins into cyclic hydrocarbons over solid acid supported metal catalysts in cyclohexane

Humins are common undesirable sideproducts during many acid-catalyzed reactions in renewable biomass platform conversion. However, few studies have been reported to the efficient utilization of humins. For the first time, the selective catalytic conversion of biomass-derived humins into cyclic hydrocarbons with high conversion rate and selectivity is presented using a home-made Ru/W-P-Si-O bifunctional catalyst. The multistage polymerization structure of humins was studied through controlled experiments. Results show that the CAC bond network can be efficiently depolymerized at a mild reaction temperature of 340-380 degrees C, catalyzed by the cooperative catalysis of nano-Ru particles and porous strong Lewis solid acid. Particularly, 95.4% conversion of humins was achieved under the optimal condition with up to 88.3% yield of cyclic hydrocarbons. The detailed composition after liquefaction was also analyzed. This study paves the way for the efficient production of cyclic and aromatic hydrocarbons from furan-derived humin polymer through Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions between furan rings. (C) 2020 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study presents the selective catalytic conversion of biomass-derived humins into cyclic hydrocarbons using a Ru/W-P-Si-O catalyst, achieving high conversion rates and selectivity. Results showed that the CAC bond network can be efficiently depolymerized at mild reaction temperatures, resulting in up to 95.4% conversion of humins with 88.3% yield of cyclic hydrocarbons. The research paves the way for the efficient production of cyclic and aromatic hydrocarbons from humin polymer through Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions.