Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 404-414.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63505-9

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One-pot cascade conversion of xylose to furfuryl alcohol over a bifunctional Cu/SBA-15-SO3H catalyst

Tianyu Deng, Guangyue Xu, Yao Fu   

  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, iChEM, CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Biomass Clean Energy, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China
  • Received:2019-07-27 Revised:2019-08-29 Online:2020-03-18 Published:2019-11-19
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFB1501600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21572212, 51821006, 51961135104), the Major Science and Technology Projects of Anhui Province (18030701157), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA21060101), and the Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01N092). The authors thank the Hefei Leaf Co., Ltd. for free samples that helped us conduct this study.

Abstract: The conversion of hemicellulose-derived xylose to furfuryl alcohol is a practical procedure for producing value-added chemicals from biomass. In this study, a bifunctional Cu/SBA-15-SO3H catalyst was employed for the one-pot catalytic conversion of xylose to furfuryl alcohol with a yield of up to 62.6% at the optimized conditions of 140℃, 4 MPa, and for 6 h in a biphasic water/n-butanol solvent. A high reaction temperature resulted in further hydrogenation to 2-methyl furan, while a high hydrogen pressure led to a side hydrogenation reaction to xylitol. The biphasic solvent allowed xylose solvation as well as furfuryl product extraction. The acidic -SO3H sites and Cu sites co-existed, maintained a balance, and cooperatively catalyzed the cascade conversion. Excessive acidic sites and large pores could promote the xylose conversion, although a low furfuryl alcohol yield was obtained. This catalytic system could be potentially applied to the one-pot synthesis of furfuryl alcohol from hemicellulose-derived xylose.

 

Key words: Biomass, Furfuryl alcohol, Heterogeneous catalysis, One-pot synthesis, Xylose

CLC Number: