Hydrodeoxygenation of sugar alcohols can be tuned to produce monofunctional oxygenates for use as jet or diesel fuel precursors. However, the catalysts typically utilize precious metals and are not highly selective. Here, the hydrodeoxygenation of aqueous sorbitol was studied over a Co/TiO₂ catalyst to produce monofunctionals at a 56 C% yield. The majority of these species are alcohols (69%) or heterocycles (23%) while ketones and aldehydes are readily hydrogenated. 67% of the monofunctionals are C₅-C₆. Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry provided evidence for the coupling of C₃ and C₆ oxygenates to C₉₊ oligomeric species, which likely fragment and deoxygenate to form C₁-C₆ monofunctionals and gases. Co/TiO₂ deactivation occurred irreversibly due to sintering and leaching promoted by oxygenated species. Our results suggest that low-cost base metal catalysts can be as effective as many precious metal catalysts for monofunctional production from sorbitol toward heavy fuels if catalyst deactivation issues can be overcome.

可以调节糖醇的加氢脱氧反应，以制得用作喷气或柴油燃料前体的单官能含氧化合物。但是，催化剂通常利用贵金属并且选择性不高。在此，研究了在Co / TiO ₂催化剂上对山梨糖醇水溶液进行加氢脱氧，以56％的收率生产单官能团。这些物质中的大多数是醇（69％）或杂环（23％），而酮和醛则易于氢化。67％的单官能团为C ₅ -C ₆。傅里叶变换离子回旋共振质谱为C ₃和C ₆含氧化合物与C ₉₊的偶联提供了证据寡聚物种，它们可能会断裂并脱氧以形成C ₁ -C ₆单官能团和气体。由于含氧物质的烧结和浸出，导致不可逆地发生了Co / TiO ₂失活。我们的结果表明，如果可以克服催化剂失活的问题，低成本的贱金属催化剂与从山梨糖醇向重质燃料单功能生产的许多贵金属催化剂一样有效。