Hydrocarbon fuel production from polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic acids) was studied in a two-step process: oxidative cleavage followed by decarboxylation. In the first step, the effects of oxidizing agent concentration and reaction temperature were investigated. The optimum yield for oxidative cleavage of linoleic acid was 90.3 mol% of hexanoic acid and 53.8 mol% of nonanedioic acid; while that of linolenic acid was 60.0 mol% of nonanedioic acid. In the second step, decarboxylation of hexanoic and nonanedioic acids into hydrocarbons was investigated under different N₂ pressures with a Pd/C catalyst to yield 73.5 mol% of n-pentane and 73.1 mol% of n-heptane, respectively, which correspond to the carbon number range of gasoline (C4-C10).

Hydrogen donation is important to produce liquefied oil from woody biomass by pyrolysis using diesel as solvent. However, when tetralin was used as a hydrogen donor, some physical properties of the diesel soluble fuel did not conform to the JIS standards, because the physical properties of tetralin are different from those of diesel oil. Therefore, the catalytic effect when palladium on carbon was used as the hydrogenation catalyst was examined because it was easily separated from the liquefied oil. As a result, effect of hydrogen donation of palladium on carbon suppressed residue formation and increased the liquefied oil. In the reaction process, it was suggested that palladium on carbon uses the hydrogen produced by dehydrogenation of the diesel oil and by the water gas shift reaction using CO and H₂O derived from woody biomass. Hence, adding water examination was carried out for promotion of the water gas shift reaction. As a result, the water gas shift reaction was promoted by adding water and the amount of liquefied oil was increased. Furthermore, some physical properties of the diesel soluble fuel were improved and approached the JIS standards.

Short-chain oligomers such as dimers and trimers are highly valued products because of their excellent biocompatibility caused by the presence of multi-hydrophilic groups within their structures. Conventionally, oligomers are produced via solvent-free glycerol etherification reactions using a simple heating process. However, the process requires a long reaction time (>7 h). Therefore, this work aims to minimize the reaction time by using microwave irradiation as a heating source and to enhance the yield of dimers and trimers by using a catalyst prepared from clay as an economical material for glycerol etherification. Thus, lithium-intercalated montmorillonite clay (Li/mk-10) was prepared via the wet impregnation method. The maximum 98% glycerol conversion was achieved in 4 h with the maximum dimer yield of 45% in 3 h.