Effect of oxide supports on Pt-Ni bimetallic catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 2(5H)-furanone

Abstract

Our previous work has identified the Pt-Ni/SiO2 bimetallic catalyst as a promising catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 2(5H)-furanone to γ-butyrolactone (GBL). The competitive relationship between the selective hydrogenation of 2(5H)-furanone over Pt-Ni metal sites and the polymerization side reactions over the oxide support is found to be a key factor for the production of GBL. The current work investigates the effect of oxide supports on the selective hydrogenation of 2(5H)-furanone by comparing Pt-Ni bimetallic and Pt monometallic catalysts supported on SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2 and TiO2-ZrO2. A synergetic bimetallic effect was observed over all five oxide supports, as the Pt-Ni bimetallic catalyst is more selective and active toward the production of GBL than the corresponding Pt monometallic catalyst. Catalysts on the non-acidic and non-reducible SiO2 showed a better catalyst performance than those on either the acidic Al2O3 with a high surface area or the partially reducible TiO2, ZrO2 and TiO2-ZrO2 with relatively low surface areas and different acid sites. The performance of the five Pt-Ni bimetallic catalysts follows the trend of SiO2 > Al2O3 > TiO2 > TiO2-ZrO2 > ZrO2 based on the GBL yield. The GBL yield was further improved by using the SiO2 support with a higher surface area and increasing the metal loadings of Pt and Ni to increase the number of hydrogenation active sites.