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.