Odiri Siakpebru Receives Best Oral Presentation Award from 2024 GPCS Fall Symposium!

Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering is delighted to announce that Odiri Siakpebru was the recipient of the Best Oral Presentation Award at the Great Plains Catalysis Society (GPCS) Symposium, hosted by The University of Oklahoma. Odiri is a KU PhD student working at FEWLS under Dr. Ana Morais' supervision. He presented his most recent work entitled "Application of Hierarchical Zeolites in Hydroxyalkylation of 2-Methylfuran and Furfural to Produce Jet Fuel/Diesel Precursors", which is co-authored by Anoop Uchagawkar, Lakshmiprasad Gurrala, Oliver Norris, Jared Bartett and Ana Rita C. Morais.

One of the challenges in producing jet fuel from lignocellulosic biomass is the limited carbon number in cellulose (C6) and hemicellulose (C5) building blocks. To address this limitation, our group has been exploring a C-C coupling reaction involving the hydroxyalkylation of biomass-derived furans, such as 2-methyl furan, with biomass-derived furan aldehydes, such as furfural. This process extends the carbon chain, resulting in hydrocarbon precursors with more than ten carbon atoms, as required to be within the range for jet fuel alkanes. In this study, we introduced an innovative approach that involves the hydroxyalkylation of 2-methyl furan and furfural using hierarchical H-Y, H-β, and low Si/Al of H-Y (2.5) and H-β (5.2 and 12.5) zeolites. For the first time, our groups has reported a maximum yield of 70 ± 2.4 mol.% C15 hydrocarbon precursor using hierarchical H-Y at 90°C in a 5-hour reaction.

Thank you to all the authors for their commitment and for making this presentation possible.

Furthermore, our team congratulates Odiri for his award and for successfully carrying out this research effort!