Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol in the Presence of a Recyclable Cobalt/SBA-15 Catalyst

Maïté Audemar (1) , Carmen Ciotonea (1, 2) , Karine de Oliveira Vigier (1) , Sebastien Royer (1) , Adrian Ungureanu (2) , Brindusa Dragoi (2) , Emil Dumitriu (2) , Jérôme François (1)

1 IC2MP [Poitiers] - Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux de Poitiers [UMR 7285]
2 UTI - Laboratory of Organic Chemistry

The hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol was performed in the presence of a Co/SBA-15 catalyst. High selectivity (96%) at a conversion higher than 95% is reported over this catalytic system. As the conversion of furfural to furfuryl alcohol occurs over metallic Co sites, the effect of reduction temperature, H-2 pressure, and reaction temperature were studied. Optimum reaction conditions were: 150 degrees C, 1.5h, 2.0MPa of H-2. The catalyst was recyclable, and furfuryl alcohol was recovered with a purity higher than 90%. The effect of the solvent concentration was also studied. With a minimum of 50wt% of solvent, the selectivity to furfuryl alcohol and the conversion of furfural remained high (both over 80%). Likewise, the activity of the catalyst is maintained even in pure furfural, which confirms the real potential of the proposed catalytic system. This catalyst was also used in the hydrogenation of levulinic acid to produce -valerolactone selectively.

Mots clés: biomass; cobalt; heterogeneous catalysis; hydrogenation; supported catalysts

Domaines: Catalyse

Maïté Audemar, Carmen Ciotonea, Karine de Oliveira Vigier, Sebastien Royer, Adrian Ungureanu, et al.. Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol in the Presence of a Recyclable Cobalt/SBA-15 Catalyst . ChemSusChem, 2015, 8 (11 ), pp.1885-1891 ⟨10.1002/cssc.201403398⟩. ⟨hal-01327190⟩