Development of efficient catalysts for the transformation of biomass to biofuel

Abstract

In the recent world, there are two major challenges – global warming and energy demand. BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019 revealed that global energy consumption has increased by 2.9% in 2018. Depletion of fossil fuel resources prone us to find an alternative renewable energy source. In this regard, biomass is an excellent alternative renewable carbon source. It has contributed about 10-14% of World’s energy supply. Herein, we have explored an efficient and cost-effective method involving the hydrodeoxygenation process, to synthesize biofuel from the biomass derived furfural-aldol adducts. We achieved a process to synthesize selectively long chain alkane (C13 based hydrocarbon) at a very low temperature without external H2 source over the highly active heterogeneous monometallic Ru nanoparticles.