(612e) Kinetics and Deactivation Studies on the Jet Fuel Precursor Synthesis By Hydroxyalkylation-Alkylation of 2-Methylfuran with Furfural Using Hierarchical H-Y Zeolite

Due to the commercial importance of C-C coupling reactions to produce synthetic aviation fuel (SAFs) from lignocellulosic biomass-derived compounds, we sought to understand the kinetics of hydroxyalkylation-alkylation (HAA) of 2-methylfuran and furfural and the rate of zeolite catalyst decay to aid in determining catalyst activity and the optimal time on stream before the catalyst is regenerated. In this study, we showed that HAA of 2-methylfuran and furfural follows first-order kinetics for both reactants. It was observed that higher catalytic activity could be sustained with the hierarchical H-Y zeolite at an optimal reaction temperature of 80°C. The activation energy was determined to be 6.04 Kcal/mol, which was more than 50% lower compared to previous work using cation exchange resin (CER) catalyst. The rate of catalyst decay, which follows a half-order decay law, remained unchanged with variations within a temperature range of 40-80 °C. Catalyst deactivation due to coke formation on the catalyst surface occurred after extended time on stream; however, catalytic activity can be restored through regeneration. The reduction in catalyst activity observed after three regeneration cycles was attributed to the presence of occluded water within the zeolite framework arising from the reaction system's stoichiometric water.