A highly active Ni/mesoporous attapulgite for hydrocracking CO bonds in rice straw

•Ni/MPSCMFA exhibits a high activity for hydrocracking the CO bond in BOB.•RSP was effectively hydrocracked to SP over Ni/MPSCMFA at 190 °C.•The SP has significantly higher C and H contents but lower O content than RSP.•Alkanols are the main components in the SP.

A novel linear core–shell structured mesoporous silica coated microfiber attapulgite (MPSCMFA) was prepared. Ni/MPSCMFA, i.e., MPSCMFA-supported nickel catalyst was subsequently prepared by thermally decomposing nickel tetracarbonyl on MPSCMFA. Benzyloxybenzene (BOB) was used as a related model compound to evaluate the catalytic activity of Ni/MPSCMFA for CO bond cleavage. As a result, BOB was completely converted to toluene and phenol under pressurized hydrogen at 150 °C over Ni/MPSCMFA, suggesting that Ni/MPSCMFA is highly active for hydrocracking the CO bond in BOB at low temperatures. Ni/MPSCMFA-catalyzed hydroconversion of rice straw powder (RSP) was also investigated. The results show that the resulting soluble portion (SP) has higher contents of carbon and hydrogen, but lower content of oxygen than RSP. Especially, C4–C9 alkanols are the dominant compounds in the SP (up to 70.77%).