Continuous hydrodeoxygenation of lignin to jet-range aromatic hydrocarbons
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Washington State Univ., Richland, WA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Washington State Univ., Richland, WA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is essential to decrease the carbon footprint of the aviation industry. Although many strategies have been developed to provide the branched, aliphatic components of SAF, few viable strategies have been demonstrated to supply the aromatic and cycloalkane fraction of SAF at the necessary scale from bio-based feedstocks. Lignin is the largest natural source of renewable aromatic compounds, yet major challenges in deoxygenation have prevented its use as a feedstock for SAF. Here we report a continuous, two-stage catalytic process using molybdenum carbide to deoxygenate lignin from poplar into aromatic hydrocarbons with 87.5% selectivity towards aromatic hydrocarbons at 86% of the theoretical carbon recovery. This work demonstrates an effective approach to convert lignin into aromatic SAF blendstocks.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830; AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1957789
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1900006
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-177299
- Journal Information:
- Joule, Journal Name: Joule Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 6; ISSN 2542-4351
- Publisher:
- Elsevier - Cell PressCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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