Synthesis of Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Lubricant From Bio-Based Furanics via Hydroxyalkylation/Alkylation Over...

We established a novel integrated circular catalysis strategy that simultaneously valorizes postconsumer polystyrene (PS) plastic waste into functional solid acid catalysts and then converts biomass-derived furanics into hydrocarbon fuels and lubricants. These alkanes were synthesized via hydroxyalkylation/alkylation (HAA) of 2-methylfuran (2-MF) with furfural or decanal to trifuran and C₂₀ bis-furanyl compound (C₂₀-DMF), followed by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). A series of sulfonated PS-based solid acid catalysts was prepared by direct sulfonation of postconsumer PS wastes using concentrated H₂SO₄. The obtained PS-60 derived from recycled yogurt containers exhibited superior activity, delivering 85.5% yield of trifuran and 86.3% yield of C₂₀-DMF, outperforming commercial Amberlyst resin. This enhanced performance is attributed to its high acid site density and pronounced hydrophobicity. In the subsequent HDO step, a mesoporous Ni/ZSM-5 catalyst was prepared via controlled alkaline desilication followed by triammonium citrate-assisted wet impregnation. The obtained Ni/ZSM-5A3 exhibited markedly enhanced performance relative to its microporous counterpart Ni/ZSM-5A0, achieving tenfold higher alkane formation rate and yielding ~80% of SAF- and lubricant-range alkanes. These improvements are ascribed to the mesopore generation, which not only improves Ni nanoparticle dispersion, thereby enhancing hydrogen activation, but also facilitates diffusion and accessibility of bulky furanic molecules and oxygenated intermediates to active sites.