Review

Furfural-acetone (FAc) condensate products need to be processed through hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reactions for yielding hydrocarbons which could be used as biofuels. Four new catalysts were prepared and tested for the HDO of furfural-acetone condensate products: mechanochemically prepared Pd/Zr-SBA-15; impregnated Pd/Zr-SBA-15; Pd/Al-SBA-15; Pd/SBA-15 and commercial NiW/SiO2-Al2O3. All these catalysts presented a high activity for the transformation of FAc, showing a complete conversion of the substrate after 8 hours at 200 °C and 50 bar of H2. The main fraction of the products was composed of hydrogenated compounds, due to successive hydrogenation of the ketone C=O, aliphatic C=C and furan C=C bonds. Surprisingly, NiW commercial catalysts presented a noticeable activity at 200 °C, hydrogenating mainly from FAc to 4-(2-furyl)-butan-2-one. The acetone present in the feedstock also reacted itself by aldol condensation forming diacetone alcohol, which undergoes successive dehydration and hydrogenation reactions yielding mesityl oxide, methyl isobutene ketone and methyl isobutyl carbinol.