Hydrogenolysis of Biomass‐Derived 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural to Produce 2,5‐Dimethylfuran Over Ru‐ZrO ₂ ‐MCM‐41 Catalyst

Abstract

Abstract In this work, an effective catalytic route for the selective hydrogenolysis of renewable biomass‐derived 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to high quality bio‐fuel 2,5‐dimethylfuran (DMF) was reported using Ru supported on ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41. The synthesized Ru supported on ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41 catalyst was characterized by different techniques such as XRD, BET surface area, XPS, SEM, TEM, EDX, TGA and TPD. Reaction parameters, like time, metal loading on ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41, catalyst loading, temperature, H 2 pressure and solvent, were optimized for the conversion of HMF to DMF using prepared catalyst. The investigation performed in this study shows that Ru supported on ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41 is highly active and selective catalyst for effective transformation of the HMF into DMF in high yield and selectivity. With the use of 2 wt % Ru‐ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41 catalyst, 90% yield of DMF was obtained from HMF with very short reaction time of 1 h. The catalyst was recycled upto six time with slight decrease in yield after 4 th cycle. A direct conversion of Fructose to DMF was also achieved in 53% yield using Amberlyst‐15 and 2%Ru‐ZrO 2 ‐MCM‐41 combined catalyst in n ‐butanol.