Synthesis of high-density liquid fuel via Diels-Alder reaction of dicyclopentadiene and lignocellulose-derived 2-methylfuran

A process via Diels-Alder reaction of lignocellulose-derived 2-methylfuran and petroleum-derived dicyclopentadiene following by hydrodeoxygenation was proposed to synthesize a new kind high-density liquid fuel. The results show that the catalysts, temperature and reactant ratio can affect the product distribution of Diels-Alder reaction greatly. Among the investigated catalysts, HY zeolite exhibited the best catalytic activity and showed good recycling ability. Over HY zeolite, high conversion of reactants along with acceptable selectivity of the target products was obtained, under the reaction temperature of 150 °C and 2-MF/DCPD ratio of 2:1. After hydrodeoxygenation, the as-obtained fuel has a density of 0.984 g/mL, much higher than that of widely used JP-10 fuel (0.94 g/mL), a low freezing point of −58 °C and a volumetric neat heat of combustion of 41.96 MJ/L. Furthermore, a blended fuel with 25% JP-10 exhibits high density and excellent cryogenic properties, which is very promising to serve as high-density fuel for advanced propulsion application.