Selective Demethoxylation of Guaiacols to Phenols using Supported MoO 3 Catalysts

Huaizhou Yang, Wang Yin, Xiaotian Zhu, Peter J. Deuss, Hero J. Heeres*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
73 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract


Lignin-derived monomers with methoxy substituents are abundantly present in bioliquids derived from lignocellulosic biomass. Examples are the products obtained from the reductive catalytic fractionation of lignin (RCF) and pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and hydrotreated products thereof. An attractive valorization step for these liquids involves demethoxylation to obtain alkylated phenols through selective catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). Within the context of sustainable chemistry, there is a strong drive to use cheap, non-precious metal catalysts for this purpose. In this study, the HDO of guaiacol (5 wt% in toluene) was investigated in a continuous fixed-bed reactor at 380 °C, 20 bar over supported MoO3 catalysts. MoO3 (5 %) supported on TiO2 (P25) was shown to give superior performance compared with MoO3 supported on anatase TiO2, Al2O3, SiO2, Nb2O5, CeO2, and ZrO2. Additional studies involving variation of the Mo loading and process conditions were performed, and the highest selectivity to demethoxylated phenolics like phenol and methylated phenols was 82 % at 97 % conversion of guaiacol. Both 4-n-propylguaiacol and a realistic guaiacols-rich feed isolated from a representative pyrolysis oil were also successfully demethoxylated with the 5 % MoO3/TiO2 catalyst.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2022002
Number of pages13
JournalChemCatChem
Volume14
Issue number16
Early online date30-Jun-2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19-Aug-2022

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