Impact of solvent for individual steps of phenol hydrodeoxygenation with Pd/C and HZSM-5 as catalysts

Impacts of water, methanol, and hexadecane solvents on the individual steps of phenol hydrodeoxygenation are investigated over Pd/C and HZSM-5 catalyst components at 473 K in presence of H2. Hydrodeoxygenation of phenol to cyclohexane includes four individual steps of phenol hydrogenation to cyclohexanone on Pd/C, cyclohexanone hydrogenation to cyclohexanol on Pd/C, cyclohexanol dehydration to cyclohexene on HZSM-5, and cyclohexene hydrogenation to cyclohexane on Pd/C. Individual phenol and cyclohexanone hydrogenation rates are much lower in methanol and hexadecane than in water, while rates of cyclohexanol dehydration and cyclohexene hydrogenation are similar in three solvents. The slow rate in methanol is due to the strong solvation of reactants and the adsorption of methanol on Pd, as well as to the reaction between methanol and the cyclohexanone intermediate. The low solubility of phenol and strong interaction of hexadecane with Pd lead to the slow rate in hexadecane. The apparent activation energies for hydrogenation follow the order Ea phenol > Ea cyclohexanone > Ea cyclohexene, and the sequences of individual reaction rates are reverse in three solvents. The dehydration rates 1.1–1.8×103molmolBAS-1h-1 and apparent activation energies (115–124 kJ mol−1) are comparable in three solvents. In situ liquid-phase IR spectroscopy shows the rates consistent with kinetics derived from chromatographic evidence in the aqueous phase and verifies that hydrogenation of phenol and cyclohexanone follows reaction orders of 1.0 and 0.55 over Pd/C, respectively. Conversion of cyclohexanol with HZSM-5 shows first-order dependence in approaching the dehydration–hydration equilibrium in the aqueous phase.