One-Pot Conversion of Furfural to g-Valerolactone over Co- and Pt-doped ZSM-5 catalysts

Abstract

γ-Valerolactone (GVL) is one of the useful biomass compounds produced via different reaction pathways from hemicellulose. Typically, GVL is produced by conversion of furfural using supported metal catalysts. In this study, Co- and Pt-doped /ZSM-5 catalysts with Co loadings (0-10 wt%) and Pt loadings (0.5-2 wt%) were prepared by impregnation method and employed in the one-pot conversion of furfural to GVL. The reactions were carried out in a 100 cm3 batch stainless steel reactor at 120 oC atmospheric pressure for 5 h. The products were analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). The major products were GVL, levullinic acid (LA), isopropyllevullinate (IPL), and angelica lactones (AL). Compared to the non-modified H-ZSM-5, Co- and Pt-doped /ZSM-5 produced much higher yield of GVL with 1%Pt/ZSM-5 showed the highest yield at 85.4% under the conditions used. The catalysts were characterized by N2-adsorption, XRD, TPR, NH3-TPD and Pyridine-IR spectroscopy. The catalyst performances were correlated to the physicochemical properties of the catalysts such as the amount and type of acid sites.