Immobilized highly dispersed Ni nanoparticles over porous carbon as an efficient catalyst for selective hydrogenation of furfural and levulinic acid

Putrakumar Balla,Prem Kumar Seelam,Ravi Balaga,Rajendiren Rajesh,Vijayanand Perupogu,Tong Xiang Liang

doi:10.1016/j.jece.2021.106530

Abstract

Sustainable catalysis is the key for the future progress toward biorefinery and bioeconomy. In this work, we designed and developed an inexpensive and eco-friendly Ni@C catalyst for selective hydrogenation of biomass-based platform molecules. A facile synthesized Ni nanoparticles encapsulated in a stabilized carbon support derived from a sacrificial agent copolymer-gel was investigated in the hydrogenation of furfural (FA) to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFOL) and levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valeralactone (GVL). The aim is to study the two different reactions over a highly stabilized Ni nanoparticles embedded in the carbon matrix. The Ni@C was found to be active and selective in multi-catalyzed hydrogenation reactions. The Ni nanoparticles with small and ultra-fine sizes are highly dispersed over the carbon matrix. This was concluded through high-resolution micrography images (SEM, TEM) and XRD patterns. In both reactions, a complete conversion of furfural and levulinic acid was achieved with maximum selectivity over the Ni@C catalyst. The effect of reaction temperature, solvent type, reaction time, and H2 pressure were also studied. Overall, optimized reaction conditions were determined, and the Ni@C is easily reusable and exceptionally durable in the studied reaction cycles. The apparent activation energies for FA hydrogenation to THFOL and LA hydrogenation to GVL are 15.4 kJ/mol and 33.6 kJ/mol, respectively.

Highlights

Human consumption of products and services is on the rise due to population growth and urbanization
The Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA)-DTA curves of as-prepared Ni/polymer gel are presented in the supplementary information (Fig. S2) and indicated that the sacrificial template decomposes completely between the tem perature range of 100 ◦C and 350 ◦C, respectively
After conducting series of experimental runs in different operating conditions, we found the most optimized conditions, wherein high activity and selec tivity can be achieved

Summary

Introduction

Human consumption of products and services is on the rise due to population growth and urbanization. Biomass is converted by thermo chemical and catalytic processes to a wide spectrum of renewable platform molecules and intermediates for different industrial applica tions. These biomass-based platform molecules are foreseen as value-added compounds in manufacturing polymers, biofuels, synthetic and functional chemicals [7]. In this context, furfural (FA) and levulinic acid (LA) are the two main platform molecules studied widely in the production of biofuels, monomers and biochemicals [7,8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion