Vapor phase hydrogenation of levulinic acid using formic acid as a hydrogen source has been conducted over ordered mesoporous Cu/Fe 2 O 3 catalysts prepared by hard template method using mesoporous silica, SBA-15. X-ray diffraction result reveals the absence of copper peaks because of either highly dispersed state, or formation of a solid solution with iron oxides. The N 2 sorption analysis and TEM results indicate the retainment of mesoporous nature in the samples. Among the catalysts tested, 10 (wt%) Cu/Fe 2 O 3 seems to be an efficient catalyst to yield higher amounts of γ-valerolactone under hydrogen-free conditions. The results reveal the formation of spinel species, which gets reduced easily at a lower temperature (as evidenced from TPR studies), and as a consequence of this synergism, significant improvement in the catalytic performance for the synthesis of γ-valerolactone from levulinic acid and formic acid in presence of water has been achieved. The presence of water plays a crucial role in obtaining a higher yield of γ-valerolactone. This makes the catalytic system a viable methodology for hydrogenation of levulinic acid to get γ-valerolactone.
Hydrogenation of furfural is carried out efficiently by ZrO 2 using 2-propanol as a hydrogen source in liquid phase. Various characterizations like XRD, Pyridine-FTIR, NH 3-TPD (acidity), CO 2-TPD (basic property), and N 2 physisorption study for surface area analysis were used to understand the properties and to correlate with the activity results. These results revealed that zirconia calcined at low temperature (573 K) possesses amorphous phase, high surface area and large number of acid-base sites which are helpful in achieving higher activity.
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