Continuous Hydrodeoxygenation of Lignin to Jet-Range Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Michael Stone, Matthew Webber, William Mounfield III, David Bell, Earl Christensen, Ana Morais, Yanding Li, Eric Anderson, Joshua Heyne, Gregg Beckham, Yuriy Roman-Leshkov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

63 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is essential to decrease the carbon footprint of the aviation industry. Although many strategies have been developed to provide the linear and branched aliphatic components of SAF, few viable strategies have been demonstrated to supply the aromatic and cycloalkane fraction of the SAF at the necessary scale from bio-based feedstocks. Lignin is the largest natural source of renewable aromatic compounds; however, major challenges in deoxygenation have prevented its use as a feedstock for SAFs. Here, we report a continuous, two-stage catalytic process using molybdenum carbide to deoxygenate lignin from poplar into aromatic hydrocarbons with 87.5% selectivity toward aromatic hydrocarbons at 86% of the theoretical carbon recovery. Tier α fuel property testing indicates that the SAF-range lignin-derived aromatic compounds are likely performance-advantaged across multiple properties relative to conventional jet fuel aromatic compounds. This work demonstrates an effective approach to convert lignin into aromatic SAF blendstocks.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)2324-2337
Number of pages14
JournalJoule
Volume6
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-2A00-82012

Keywords

  • biofuels
  • biomass fractionation
  • biorefining
  • hydrodeoxygenation
  • lignin first
  • lignin valorization
  • reductive catalytic fractionation
  • sustainable aviation fuels

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