Process for preparing perhydrofluorene or alkyl-substituted perhydrofluorene

A process for preparing perhydrofluorene or alkyl-substituted perhydrofluorene, characterized in that the process comprises steps of:

• (1) reacting a phenolic compound or an aromatic hydrocarbon compound or an aromatic ketone compound or an aromatic ether compound with a benzyl compound to carry out an alkylation reaction in the presence of a first catalyst, thereby to produce substituted or unsubstituted diphenyl methane, wherein the first catalyst is an acidic catalyst;
• and
• (2) reacting the substituted or unsubstituted diphenyl methane with hydrogen gas in the presence of a second catalyst to carry out a hydrogenation reaction or a hydrodeoxygenation reaction, thereby to produce perhydrofluorene or alkyl-substituted perhydrofluorene, wherein the second catalyst is a physical mixture of a metal catalyst and an acidic catalyst or is a metal catalyst loaded on an acidic catalyst;
• wherein the metal catalyst is one or more selected from the group consisting of Cu, W, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ir, Rh, Zn, PtNi, CoNi, CoMo, IrFe, PdPt, or RuCu, and the acidic catalyst is one or more selected from the group consisting of SiO2—Al2O3, HZSM-5, Al-MCM-41, Hβ, MMT-K10, SAPO-34, USY, H3O40PW12.xH2O, Amberlyst-15, Nafion, AlCl3, FeCl3, ZnCl2, CuCl2, metal-modified HPW, Nb2O5, WO3 or liquid phosphoric acid;
• wherein when the metal catalyst and the acidic catalyst are physically mixed, a mass ratio of the metal catalyst to the acidic catalyst is 0.02% or above;
• and when the metal catalyst is loaded on the acidic catalyst, the mass ratio of the metal catalyst to the acidic catalyst is from 0.02 to 10%.