The hydrodeoxygenation of bioderived furans into alkanes

The conversion of biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks is one part of a drive to reduce the world's dependence on crude oil. For transportation fuels in particular, wholesale replacement of a fuel is logistically problematic, not least because of the infrastructure that is already in place. Here, we describe the catalytic defunctionalization of a series of biomass-derived molecules to provide linear alkanes suitable for use as transportation fuels. These biomass-derived molecules contain a variety of functional groups, including olefins, furan rings and carbonyl groups. We describe the removal of these in either a stepwise process or a one-pot process using common reagents and catalysts under mild reaction conditions to provide n -alkanes in good yields and with high selectivities. Our general synthetic approach is applicable to a range of precursors with different carbon content (chain length). This allows the selective generation of linear alkanes with carbon chain lengths between eight and sixteen carbons. The development of methodology to convert biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks is part of a drive to reduce the world's dependence on crude oil. Here, the catalytic defunctionalization of a series of biomass-derived molecules is described, which allows the selective generation of alkanes with carbon chain lengths between eight and sixteen for use as transportation fuels.