Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Tetrahydrofurfuryl Alcohol Using Supported Nickel–Cobalt Catalysts

Abstract

In this study, bimetallic nickel–cobalt catalysts supported on SiC, γ-Al2O3, and SBA-15 with different compositions of nickel and cobalt were explored for the one-step hydrogenation of furfural (FAL) to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFOL). Detailed characterization of the synthesized catalysts revealed that smaller size and higher dispersion of Ni-CoOx sites in 10N-10C-MS catalyst are responsible to convert almost 100% FAL and the maximum selectivity toward THFOL. 10N-10C-Al showed almost 99% conversion but had slightly less THFOL selectivity, while 10N-10C-SiC showed poor conversion having maximum selectivity toward furfuryl alcohol (FOL), because of the large-sized Ni particles. Bimetallic catalysts exhibited superior activity, in contrast to their monometallic counterparts, wherein 10N-10C-MS displayed the best catalytic performance, with 90.4% selectivity to THFOL at 210 °C and 7 MPa. Furthermore, the Power law and the proposed LHHW models were found fit for the experimental data for the conversion of both FAL and FOL.