Levulinic acid hydrogenolysis on Al2O3-based Ni-Cu bimetallic catalysts

Synthesis of γ-valerolactone by hydrogenation of levulinic acid over supported nickel catalysts

“…Figure Also for other transition metal catalysts or those containing Raney-Nickel, reaction temperatures above 200 °C were required to achieve LA co nversions in the same range (> 80 %) as reported for noble metal catalyst. [13,22,26,30] A reaction temperature of 200 °C as reported here is still quite low for non-no ble metal catalysts at comparable catalyst/reactant ratio to obtain a LA conversion over 90 %. The influence of the catalyst amount on the LA conversion is depicted in Figure 7.…”

“…In the last few years non-noble metals like Ni or Cu were studied as hydrogenation catalysts for the GVL synthesis. [3,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Manzer [3] investigated 5 % Ni supported on carbon in 1,4-dioxane as solvent at a reaction temperature of 150 °C, a react ion time of 2 h and 55 bar hydrogen pressure. Compared to other metals (Ir, Rh, Pd, Ru, Pt, Re), which were tested under the same conditions, Ni showed both the lowest conversion of LA (5 %) and the lowest GVL selectivity (20 %).…”

“…The group of Rao [28,29] investigated Ni supported on different supports in a vapor phase hydrocyclization of LA to GVL at temperatures above 250 °C under atmospheric pressure and obtained GVL yields of 80 % with 30 wt.% Ni on SiO 2 . Bimetallic catalysts like Ni-Cu/Al 2 O 3 [30] or Ni-MoO x /C [26] were studied at high reaction temperatures (250 °C) and H 2 pressures (50 to 65 bar) and with both catalysts GVL yields of over 90 % were achieved.…”

“…In the literature, generally higher reaction temperatures were required to obtain comparable LA conversion and GVL yield when similar Ni concentrations (1 to 3 mol % Ni[26,30]) were applied.Finally, the reaction time was varied and the obtained GVL yields are depicted inFigure 8. The GVL yields increased continuously with longer reaction times.…”

Biomass-derived Platform Molecules Upgrading through Catalytic Processes: Yielding Chemicals and Fuels

“…It can be obtained in high yields by acidic treatment of glucose, fructose or cellulose but also directly from lignocellulose 141) or catalytically from glucose on solid metal(IV) phosphate catalysts 142) . Levulinic acid itself has no direct application, but can be converted to other valuable compounds like γ-valerolactone (a first step towards the production of 2-methyltetrahydrofurane) via hydrogenation over Ruof Pt-based noble metal catalysts 143) or via hydrogenolysis over γ-alumina-based nickel _ copper bimetallic catalysts 144) . Isoprene is a valuable monomer for the rubber and most chemical industries.…”