Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylation of higher aliphatic esters: towards a new protocol to the second generation biodiesel production.

An effective and highly selective decarboxylation approach to convert higher aliphatic esters into diesel-like paraffins has been developed. The results showed that palladium supported on barium sulfate was a potent catalyst to transform aliphatic esters into high-energy alkanes in supercritical hexane at a much lower temperature. Based on the comprehensive analysis to gas and liquid products, a decarboxylation mechanism was proposed. The methodology described in this paper provides a new protocol to the utilization of biomass-based resources, especially to the second generation biodiesel production.