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Abstract

A method to produce the biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) from cellulose-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) using commercial gasoline as solvent to obtain mixtures of gasoline with DMF, appropriate for direct use in present internal combustion engines, is presented. Best results were obtained with gasoline:ethanol mixtures in the ratio 9:1 (E10), as ethanol acts as a solvent mediator for the dissolution of HMF. Selected potential biofuels are also found to give high DMF yields, for example, several alcohols (81–92%) and 2-butanone (94%), while γ-valerolacton and saturated hydrocarbons show limitations (75% and 37%, respectively). The reaction in gasoline is conducted sequentially up to three times with an initial loading of 10 wt % HMF per step, resulting in a concentration increase of up to 7 wt % DMF for each step, by which a concentration range between 7 and 20 wt % DMF in the final blend is covered. The obtained blends were evaluated by the determination of the derived cetane number (DCN) and a simulated distillation with comparison to premixed blends and proved to be comparable in a wide concentration range of DMF (5–15 wt %). Thus, a potentially directly usable fuel blend is produced in a direct conversion process without the need of costly separation.