New Publication Led By FEWLS Team Highlighted In Cover Of I&EC Research!
- FEWLS Team
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 21
A shout out to the FEWLS research team and collaborators for their newest scientific article published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. The work, entitled "Application of Hierarchical H–Y Zeolites in Hydroxyalkylation–Alkylation of 2-Methylfuran with Furfural to Produce Jet Fuel Precursors", was led by Odiri K Siakpebru and co-authored by Lakshmiprasad Gurrala, Anoop Uchagawkar, Oliver Norris, Jared Bartlett, and Ana Rita C Morais, all from the University of Kansas. The study highlights significant improvements in carbon–carbon (C–C) coupling reactions when catalyzed by hierarchical zeolites with specific properties. This research has potential applications in the synthesis of jet fuel-range alkanes from sugar-derived intermediates, contributing to the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) from a sugar platform.
Also, this work has been chosen to be in the front cover of the Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2025, 64, 11 issue. The artwork of the cover (showcased here in the left) was authored by the talented artist and scientist Rita Clare. Check out her outstanding work in her website: https://www.scivetica.com.
If you are interested in this work, please check out the full manuscript in the publisher's website:
Congratulations to the authors and thank you to everyone who made this work possible!
Application of Hierarchical H–Y Zeolites in Hydroxyalkylation–Alkylation of 2-Methylfuran with Furfural to Produce Jet Fuel Precursors
Odiri K. Siakpebru, Lakshmiprasad Gurrala, Anoop Uchagawkar, Oliver Norris, Jared Bartlett, and Ana Rita C. Morais*
ABSTRACT: Producing jet fuel-range alkanes from lignocellulosic biomass is critical for achieving carbon neutrality in the aviation industry. However, carbon–carbon (C–C) coupling reactions are required to increase the molecular weight of hydrocarbon precursors, which can be further processed to yield jet fuel-range alkanes. In this work, two different hierarchical H–Y zeolites (H–Y-mod-1 and H–Y-mod-2) were synthesized using a surfactant-templating method to catalyze the hydroxyalkylation–alkylation (HAA) reactions of 2-methylfuran (2-MF) with furfural (FF) to produce a C15 hydrocarbon precursor. Specifically, hierarchical H–Y-mod-1 zeolite achieved a ninefold increase in C15 precursor yield (71.7 ± 0.2 mol %) compared to parental H–Y zeolite (4.3 ± 0.1 mol %) at 80 °C for 5 h of residence time. This enhanced catalytic activity of the hierarchical H–Y-mod-1 zeolite was attributed to its mesoporosity and strong Brønsted acidity in comparison to parental H–Y. Catalyst recyclability studies showed that hierarchical H–Y-mod-1 can be used up to three times, with a 28.7% decrease in C15 yield only after the third recycling cycle. These findings suggest that fine-tuned acidic zeolites can be leveraged to catalyze HAA reactions to produce jet fuel precursors.
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