The surface Au–Ni nano-alloy was very efficiently used for the first time for the hydrogenation of levulinic acid with formic acid as an internal hydrogen source.

Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the most abundant renewable source of commodity chemicals like hydroxymethylfurfural. Solvothermal hydrodeoxygenation of hydroxymethylfurfural towards value added chemicals was performed with a series of nickel based catalysts supported on different titania materials, ie. hydrothermally-prepared high aspect ratio and commercial TiO2 with different morphologies and crystallographic structures. The kind of titania strongly influenced the properties of the supported nickel nanoparticles, which allowed to tune the reaction selectivity towards specific products. Rutile-containing titania forced stronger Ni-Ti interaction, enhanced hydrogen adsorption, and formed larger Ni particles which resulted in high activity. Hydrothermally-prepared materials allowed to obtain selectively 2,5-bishydroxymethyltetrahydrofuran (biopolymer precursor) due a relatively small surface acidity and large Ni particles. By contrast, large surface area anatase with small nickel particles and small surface acidity allowed to selectively obtain 2,5-dimethylfuran (biofuel additive).

CuZnO is used as robust, efficient and self-tuned catalyst for the conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) or 2,5-bishydroxymethylfuran (BHMF) depending on the preparation method and the reaction environment.