Aldol Condensation of Furfural with Acetone Over Anion Exchange Resin Catalysts

Abstract

For the catalytic process to produce drop-in fuel from biomass resource via furanic compounds, aldol condensation of furanic compounds with acetone plays an important role to control carbon number of the final product. In the present research work, base catalysis of anion exchange resin for aldol condensation of furfural with acetone was investigated. When three resins showing difference in the basic property were employed, the obtained data indicated that an increase of functional group consisting of quaternary ammonium salt in the resin enhanced the catalytic activity. Also, macro-reticular (MR) resin was more active in the test reaction than gelular one, which indicates that swelling of the resin matrix do not reach the sufficient level under the reacting condition of the aqueous aldol condensation. The produced aldol condensates were classified under two types: furanyl butenone (FB) and bis-furanyl pentadienone (BFP) having the carbon number of 8 and 13, respectively. MR type resin gave rise to high BFP selectivity compared with gelular one. But, the resin catalyst was deactivated with reusing it for the test reactions repeated.