Catalytic Performance of Ru/polymer Catalyst in the Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Abstract

Furfural (FF) is one of the main components of bio-oil obtained by the treatment of lignocellulose biomass. Furfural alcohol (FA) as the main product of the selective FF hydrogenation is a source of value-added chemicals. In this paper, the results of the study of ruthenium catalysts based on hyper-crosslinked polystyrene (PS) in the selective hydrogenation of FF to FA are presented. Two types of ruthenium catalysts: nanoparticles of RuO2 and Ru0 stabilized in the PS pores were synthesized and compared. The novelty of this work is in the comparison of the PS stabilized Ru0 and RuO2 nanoparticles were performed and differences in their catalytic properties were shown. The BET, TEM, and SAXS data showed the formation of Ru-containing nanoparticles similar in size and structure for both catalysts. The comparison of the catalytic properties of the Ru catalysts showed that the catalyst with Ru0 (Ru-PS) exhibits higher values of FF conversion (99 %) and selectivity to FA (96 %). It can be assumed that Ru0 nanoparticles are responsible for the formation of catalytically active sites of selective hydrogenation of FF to FA.