Role of catalysts in sustainable production of biojet fuel from renewable feedstocks

Due to the boon of globalization, the aviation industry is booming at a rate higher than ever, depleting the limited fossil fuel resources while taking great toll on the environment. Hence, it is imperative to search for alternate, renewable, and economically comparable resources of jet fuel. On that account, lignocellulose-based biofuel is gaining an increasing interest as a potential source of biojet fuel, showing a great promise for the reduction of operating cost and environmental impacts. However, the fuel obtained from biomass cannot be directly used for aviation purposes and must go through certain upgradation processes to meet the strict jet fuel requirements. Catalysts play a crucial role in different stages of upgradation including hydrogenation, hydrodeoxygenation, alkylation, hydroisomerization, hydrocracking, aromatization, CC coupling, etc. The present chapter summarizes the different types of catalysts along with their catalytic reaction mechanism used in the catalytic conversion of different biomass feedstocks to biojet fuel. The chapter also addresses the limitations associated with some catalytic processes with suggestions regarding possible future research directions.