Catalytic hydrogenation of furfural to produce 2-methylfuran over Cu/SiO₂ catalysts prepared by different silicon sources

Both Cu/SiO₂-sol and Cu/SiO₂-aer catalysts were prepared by the ammonia evaporation method using silicon sol and aerosil as silicon sources, respectively. The catalysts were characterized by N₂ adsorption-desorption, XRD, FT-IR, TEM, N₂O-H₂ titration, H₂-TPR, NH₃-TPD and XPS. The catalytic performances of Cu/SiO₂ catalysts for hydrogenation of furfural to produce 2-methylfuran were investigated in a fixed bed reactor. Compared with Cu/SiO₂-aer catalyst, the Cu/SiO₂-sol catalyst exhibits a higher catalytic performance. The conversion of furfural is 100% and the selectivity of 2-methylfuran is above 91% during the reaction of 150 h. CuO/SiO₂-sol catalyst favors the formation of rich copper phyllosilicate phase, which could provide more weak acid sites and better Cu dispersion on the surface of Cu/SiO₂-sol catalyst. Besides, the larger pore size of Cu/SiO₂-sol contributes to reducing the carbon deposition, which is beneficial to long service life of the catalyst.