Stable and efficient CuCr catalyst for the solvent-free hydrogenation of biomass derived ethyl levulinate to γ-valerolactone as potential biofuel candidate

Abstract

Noble metal free CuCr based catalysts have been adopted for the production of γ-valerolactone (GVL) which is a biomass derived crucial platform molecule and potential liquid fuel candidate. However, the preparation of CuCr catalysts varies and in this research, a CuCr catalyst synthesized under mild conditions showed rather high catalytic capacity for the solvent-free hydrogenation of ethyl levulinate (EL) to GVL in a yield up to 95%. The catalyst was in-situ reduced and displayed excellent recycle capacity with no obvious activity decline within 5 successive runs, which was much more stable than ex-situ reduced CuCr catalyst. The high efficient, low cost and recyclability of this CuCr catalyst provides a promising pathway for biomass derived GVL production.