Hmf Hydrogenolysis Over Carbon Supported Ni-Cu Catalyst to Produce Hydrogenated Biofuels

In this work, the heterogeneous catalytic production of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) and 2,5-dimethyltetrahydrofuran (DMTHF) in a fixed-bed continuous-flow reactor has been investigated. This study utilizes an unconventional biomass-derived carbon as the catalytic support for bimetallic NiCu catalysts. Moreover, catalysts supported in commercial carbon were also used to compare with the biomass-derived one. Additionally, the carbon supports were treated with acid to remove possible impurities. All the bimetallic catalysts, regardless the support, exhibited high stability after 25 hours-on-stream, reaching DMF yields above 50% and a complete HMF conversion. In the case of monometallic catalysts, nickel was able to produce DMTHF, unlike the copper-based catalysts, implying the need of Ni to hydrogenate the furan ring. Moreover, these catalysts exhibited high yields (up to 70%) at the beginning of the reaction, but they were partially deactivated during the reaction