Liquid Fuel Production by Aqueous Phase Catalytic Transformation of Biomass for Aviation.

The high-quality bio-jet fuel derived from biomass resources can directly replace commercial fossil fuels for aviation due to the similar composition and properties. However, conventional technologies on hydrodeoxygenation of plant oil can’t produce renewable aromatics, which is the key component in the jet fuel. In this paper, the bio-jet fuels were produced by aqueous-phase processing of plant sugar/polyol. Liquid fuel yield of 31.8% with sorbitol conversion of 98% was obtained under the conditions of 280 °C, WHSV of 1.25 h −1 , GHSV of 2500 h −1 and 4.0 MPa hydrogen pressure. The content of aromatics and napthenes was above 72 wt.% in the produced liquid fuels. This process uses a wide variety of both cellulosic and conventional plant sugars, providing an economic route to sustainable bio-based jet fuel production, which includes normal and iso-paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics required for aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]