Direct thermo-catalytic transformation of pine wood into low oxygenated fuel: Influence of the support

• The direct conversion of wood under H2 into an organic liquid has been demonstrated.
• The catalyst Ru1.9Cu1.4@H0.5Cs2.5P W12O40 leads to the best hydrogenation properties.
• The organic phase is obtained with a yield up to 30 wt.% and O content lower than 3 wt.%.
• The catalyst carried on W-based HPA leads to best performances than on Mo-based HPA.
• A synergetic effect between Ru and Cu is observed for both supports.

The direct catalytic thermo-catalytic transformation of wood in presence of molecular hydrogen has been demonstrated. The resulting organic liquid consists of saturated alkanes and aromatics and was obtained with a yield up to 30 wt.%. Importantly, the oxygen content is about 3 wt.% (<5 wt.% required for bio-fuel formulation) and has a Higher Heating Value of 41 MJ kg−1 which is very close to standard diesel (44 MJ kg−1) used in automotive fuel. The catalysts comprise multi-functional Cu–Ru supported on Cs exchanged heteropolyacid (H3PW12O40 and H3PMo12O40), featuring depolymerisation, deoxygenation and hydrogenation in a single batch reactor. Current results present an alternative approach to convert highly oxygenated lignocellulosic biomass to a low oxygenated organic liquid suitable as additives in biofuels, in one step and one reactor.

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