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