Biofuels production from lignocellulosic biomass is hindered by high conversion costs in the generation of high-quality fuels, driving research towards the development of new pathways with lower severity conditions, higher yields, and higher-quality products. This presentation will feature a market-responsive biorefinery concept based on bio-derived methanol as the key intermediate, and the development of pathways to generate advantaged blendstocks for gasoline, jet, and diesel fuels. The high-octane gasoline pathway generates an advantaged fuel that is rich in 2,2,3-trimethylbutane (“triptane”), having a pure-component RON value of 113 and a sensitivity of 11. This pathway also produces olefins that can be coupled to a jet blendstock that meets 5 key ASTM International specifications. The dehydrogenative coupling of methanol generates poly(oxymethylene)ethers (POMEs), which are of interest as diesel fuel blendstocks due to their high cetane values and extremely low sooting behavior. In addition to the development of a one-step production process for the generation of POMEs from methanol, this talk will highlight a “fuel-property first” approach to alcohol exchange chemistry that further enhances the fuel properties of POME molecules. The pathways being developed here lead to higher-quality, higher-value fuel products that may enable market pull over processes that generate a regular gasoline, kerosene (jet) or distillate blendstocks.

Developing new catalytic processes for the conversion of methanol to advantaged biofuels within a market-responsive biorefinery concept

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.