Water-promoted selective heterogeneous catalytic trimerization of xylose-derived 2-methylfuran to diesel precursors

• Selective trimerization of 2-methylfuran to diesel precursor, trimer.
• The addition of water on the heterogeneous catalysis system.
• Adjusted reaction pathway for the selective formation of trimer.

The catalytic trimerization of 2-methylfuran was performed to produce diesel precursors of C15 hydrocarbons using solid acid catalysts that can replace environmentally harmful sulfuric acid. The addition of water to the reaction system significantly increased the selectivity to the diesel precursor, which is a trimer, suppressing the formation of a tetramer. The selective production of a trimer increased the diesel fuel yield when hydrodeoxygenation was performed on the condensation products of 2-methylfuran.

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