Catalytic Hydrogenation Of Ethyl Levulinate And Furfural

As the worldwide supply of petroleum diminishes,it is becoming increasingly important to produce both chemicals and transportation fuels economically from biomass that can be utilized as a renewable carbon source.In this thesis,we focused on the hydrogenation of platform compounds containing C=O and C=C bonds including ethyl levulinate?EL?and furfural?FAL?into useful chemicals via novel catalysts and reaction pathways.The effects of catalyst composition,metal support interaction and other factors on catalytic performance have been systematically investigated.The main results were as following:1.The reductive etherification of C=O of EL was realized with Pd/C modified by SiO₂ and beta as a co-catalyst.The 93%yield of ethyl-4-ethoxy pentanoate was achieved under reaction conditions of 140 ^oC and 1 MPa H₂.Kinetic studies indicated that the reaction involves an consecutive acetalization-hydrogenolysis process catalyzed by PdH species.2.By supporting Ni nanoparticles about 5 nm and highly dispersed TiO_x species together on SiO₂,highly selective and stable production of tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol in continuous flow was succeeded.The?30 wt%?Ni/?10wt%?TiO₂-SiO₂ catalyst showed>90%FAL conversion and 70%THFA selectivity after reaction for 120 h on stream at 90 ^oC and 1 MPa H₂ with LHSV of 12 mL·h^-1·g^-1_cat..The presence of highly dispersed TiO₂ grafted on the silica aerogel by controlled hydrolysis of TBT plays an important role in catalysis,which can be explained in two aspects:fascinating the H₂ activation and strengthening the interaction of unsaturated functional groups in furfural with Ni metals.