Catalytic synthesis of renewable hydrocarbons via hydrodeoxygenation of angelica lactone di/trimers

•Angelica lactone was produced in the presence of base catalyst, K2CO3.•HDO catalysts, Ni/ZSM-5 and Ni/Ac-HPA were synthesized following standard procedures.•Catalyst characterization revealed high surface area, high dispersion, and high reducibility.•HDO and product selectivities were influenced by reaction conditions and nature of the catalysts.•Shape selective Ni/ZSM-5 based catalysts favoured the production of aromatic hydrocarbon.•A product suitable for gasoline applications was obtained at the optimized condition. Angelica lactone and its di/trimers is becoming an important renewable platform molecule but the development of simple hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) catalysts will play a major role in its utilization as feedstock for fuel production. In this study, Ni supported on ZSM-5 having Si/Al ratio of 40 and 300 or Ni supported on heteropoly acid/activated carbon (Ni/Ac-HPA) were synthesized and their HDO activities on angelica lactone di/trimers resulted in the production of gasoline ranged (C6–C15) hydrocarbon fuels. The HDO activities of the catalysts were dependent on the successful incorporation of Ni metals into the pores of the supports and the Ni metals were highly dispersed with average particle sizes of 20 nm. Considering recent advances in catalytic conversion of biomass to liquid fuels, the method provided in this study is simple and could be replicated in an industrial scale.