Selective liquid-phase hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol over Cu-based catalysts

By M. M. Villaverde, N. Bertero, T. Garetto, A. Marchi. 2013

236 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract In this work, the liquid-phase furfural hydrogenation over different Cu-based catalysts was studied. The catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation (Cu/SiO 2 -I), precipitation–deposition (Cu/SiO 2 -PD) and co-precipitation (CuMgAl, CuZnAl and Cu-Cr) methods. CuMgAl, CuZnAl and Cu/SiO 2 -PD showed higher Cu dispersion and H 2 chemisorption capacity than Cu-Cr and Cu/SiO 2 -I. The selectivity to furfuryl alcohol, at 383 K and 10 bar, using 2-propanol as solvent, was 100% in all of the cases. The pattern for the hydrogenation rate per gram of Cu was: CuMgAl > Cu/SiO 2 -PD > CuZnAl > Cu-Cr > Cu/SiO 2 -I. Instead, the hydrogenation rate per Cu atom on the surface (TOF) followed the pattern: CuMgAl > Cu-Cr > Cu/SiO 2 -PD ≅ CuZnAl > Cu/SiO 2 -I. These are promising results for the future replacement of polluting Cu-Cr industrial catalysts by a Cr-free one. The highest activity of CuMgAl was attributed to an intimate and effective interaction between Cu 0 atoms and Mg 2+ cations in a spinel-like matrix. Additional catalytic tests, varying reactant initial concentration and temperature, were performed with CuMgAl catalyst. A negative reaction order (≅ −1) respect to furfural and a high apparent activation energy (≅ 127 KJ mol −1 ) were estimated, indicating a very strong adsorption of furfural on metal copper surface.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Organic Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eda522e9efdb04ec79e48b9375e93dcc72faa0f8