Bio-derived fuel additives from furfural and cyclopentanone

Here, we describe a new method for highly selective catalytic hydrogenation of fully biomass-derived 2,5-bis (2-furylmethylidene)cyclopentan-1-one (F2C) to the corresponding bis-cyclic ethers. The study highlights that by the choice of heterogeneous catalyst and solvent from three kinds of double bonds present in the F2C molecule it is possible hydrogenate only one or both exocyclic C=C bonds with selectivities 88 and 95%, respectively, or to obtain mono- or bis-cyclic ethers by saturation of C=C bonds in furan rings. Using commercial palladium catalysts supported on activated carbon and hydrocarbons (cyclohexane, n-heptane) as the solvents complete saturation of all C=C bonds can be achieved at very mild reaction conditions throughout 20 min in about 90% yield. The complete conversion of F2C and very similar selectivity and products distribution could be achieved after six catalytic runs without extra catalyst treatment or reactivation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.