Highly active Cu-MFI catalyst for conversion of furfuryl alcohol to pentanediols

¹ State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China)
² College of New Energy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China).

^* Corresponding author: liudandan@upc.edu.cn

Abstract

It is of great significance to use biomass-based furfuryl alcohol to produce oxygenated chemicals to replace petroleum-based chemicals. In this paper, a series of bifunctional Cu-MFI catalysts were developed, and the properties of biomass-based furfuryl alcohol to pentanediol, including 1,5-pentanediol and 1,2 pentanediol, were investigated. These catalysts were synthesized by ammonia evaporation method by loading copper nanoparticles on MFI molecular sieve systems with different silicon aluminum ratios. Among them, Cu-MFI (60)-AE catalyst containing abundantly Brønsted acid protons shows excellent performance, achieving 99.7% furfuryl alcohol conversion and 91% pentanediol selectivity under mild reaction conditions. The high catalytic activity can be attributed to the highly dispersed Cu species and Brønsted acid protons. Brønsted acid protons play a decisive role in the highly selective formation of 1,5-PDO. This paper can develop an economical and feasible path for converting furfuryl alcohol into high value-added fine chemicals.