Supported cobalt catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of ethyl levulinate to various chemicals. Issue 17 (1st March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cen, Youliang; Zhu, Shanhui; Guo, Jing; Chai, Jiachun; Jiao, Weiyong; Wang, Jianguo; Fan, Weibin
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 8:Issue 17(2018)
• Page Start: 9152
• Page End: 9160
• Publication Date: 2018-03-01
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c8ra01316k
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : Biomass-derived ethyl levulinate can flexibly convert to GVL, EHP, 1, 4-PDO and 2-MTHF with excellent selectivity on a supported cobalt catalyst. Abstract : A highly active and selective cobalt catalyst was developed for the hydrogenation of biomass-derived ethyl levulinate (EL) to γ-valerolactone (GVL), ethyl 4-hydroxypentanoate (EHP), 1, 4-pentanediol (1, 4-PDO) and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF), which are considered to be value-added chemicals and important biofuels. The effects of reaction time, reaction temperature, catalyst amount and solvent on its catalytic performance were investigated. In addition, the reaction pathway was studied as well. It was found that the selectivity of GVL, 1, 4-PDO and 2-MTHF on Co/ZrO2 can be easily tuned by changing reaction conditions, and can reach as high as 94%, 78% and 77%, respectively. The product selectivity is also significantly affected by the catalyst support. With SBA-15 as the support, the selectivity of EHP can reach 90%. Moreover, Co/ZrO2 gave an extraordinarily high GVL productivity of 1.50 mol gmetal −1 h −1 and displayed excellent stability and reusability. Interestingly, coke has a positive effect on the enhancement of GVL yield. AL dimers and trimers were identified as the coke species in the hydrogenation of EL. As far as we know, this is the first work conducting the flexible transformation of EL on cobalt catalysts.