In situ hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol using magnetic catalysts and heterogeneous hydrogen producer

This research aims to figure out the effect of nickel, cobalt, iron powders and alumina-supported nickel catalyst on the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol using zero-valent Zn as heterogenous hydrogen producer. The HDO tests are conducted at hydrothermal conditions in a batch micro reactor using equal amount of Zn and guaiacol feedstock, water to guaiacol ratio of 10, and catalyst load of 40 and 20 wt.% for metal powders and supported catalyst, respectively, with respect to the mass of guaiacol. Reaction time and temperature were set at 60 min and 300 ºC. The fresh and exhausted supported catalysts were characterized by the XRD and SEM-EDX analyses. Among the tested commercial metal powders, Ni has the highest guaiacol conversion rate 51.3%, significantly higher than 11.8% of Fe and 20.0% of Co. Compared with metal powders, the alumina-supported nickel catalyst showed superior performance in terms of high conversion rate of 99.3% and high hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and hydrodearomatization (HDA) efficiencies.