Towards stable nickel catalysts for selective hydrogenation of biomass-based BHMF into THFDM. Issue 2 (April 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Achour, Abdenour; Ojagh, Houman; Ho, Phuoc Hoang; Creaser, Derek; Pajalic, Oleg; Holmberg, Johan; Olsson, Louise
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental chemical engineering. Volume 11:Issue 2(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-04
• Subjects: Biomass -- Hydrogenation -- BHMF -- THFDM -- Ni -- SiO2-ZrO2 composite; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects; Environmental engineering; Periodicals; 660.0286
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2023.109461
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2213-2929

Abstract

Abstract: Selective transformation of BHMF (2, 5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan) to THFDM (tetrahydrofuran-2, 5-dimethanol) over a variety of structured Ni/Sx -Z1−x catalysts was investigated. The effects of support, Ni loading, solvent, temperature, pressure, and particle size on the conversion and selectivity were studied. Among them, the 10 wt% Ni catalyst supported on the SiO2 :ZrO2 weight ratio of 90:10 (10NiS90 Z10 ) exhibits the best performance in terms of BHMF conversion and THFDM selectivity. Its good performance was attributed to its well-balanced properties, that depend upon the ZrO2 content of the support in combination with SiO2, the active Ni sites-support interaction, and acidity/basicity ratio of each catalyst resulting in different Ni dispersions. Importantly, the 10NiS90 Z10 catalyst showed a stable selectivity to THFDM (>94%), with 99.4% conversion of BHMF during 2 h reaction time. Poor catalytic activity resulted from excessive ZrO2 content (>10 wt%). The structural, textural, and acidity properties of NiSi100−y -Zry catalysts, tuned by selectively varying the Ni amount from 5 to 15 wt%, were critically investigated using numerous material characterization techniques. Catalyst recycling experiments revealed that the catalyst could be recycled several times without any measurable loss of catalytic activity. Graphical Abstract: ga1 Highlights: The first time that the hydrogenation study on BHMF towards THFDM using NiS100−y Zy catalysts was performed. The limited addition of ZrO2 promoted high selectivity toward THFDM production with high efficiency. The well-balanced acidity-basicity ratio enhanced significantly both BHMF conversion and THFDM selectivity. Higher H2 pressure favored the selective formation of THFMD, whereas the reaction temperature has low effect on selectivity. The Ni dispersion of the catalysts are essential factor for an efficient THFDM production.