Catalytic production of γ-valerolactone, a biofuel precursor, from furfural in one-pot: Synergistic effect between Zr and Sn
Adrián García, Rita Sánchez‐Tovar, Pablo J. Miguel, Elena Montejano‐Nares, Francisco Ivars‐Barceló, Juan Antonio Cecilia, Benjamín Torres-Olea, Benjamín Solsona
Abstract
This work presents for the first time the synergistic effect of tin and zirconium for the one pot transformation of furfural into γ-valerolactone. Furfural is a versatile product that can be easily produced from lignocellulosic biomass and can be transformed into valuable products such as γ-valerolactone, which can be used to produce different types of chemicals, fuels and as a green solvent. The transformation of furfural into γ-valerolactone in one-pot has been studied using Sn and Zr based catalysts supported on treated zeolite Y. These catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, IR, UV–vis, XRD, TEM, pyridine adsorption-IR and XPS in order to determine their physicochemical properties. For all the studied compositions, mixed bimetallic Sn-Zr catalysts led to higher γ-valerolactone yields than those monometallic Sn or Zr catalysts. The bimetallic catalyst with a Sn:Zr at. ratio of 1:1 achieved the best performance, reaching a yield to γ-valerolactone of ca. 80 % after only 1 h of reaction at 180 ⁰C using 2-propanol as a hydrogen source. The best performance of the bimetallic catalyst has been related to the broad dispersion of the metals on the surface of the support, forming mixed dispersed Zr-O-Sn surface species, favoring an adequate amount of Lewis and Brønsted acid sites. Moreover, for this catalyst, stability was very high, showing constant yield values to γ-valerolactone after at least 4 uses, which can be related to the high and stable interaction between the surface metal species and the support.