Hydrogenation of furfuryl alcohol to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol on NiB/SiO2 amorphous alloy catalyst

Abstract

NiB/SiO₂ amorphous alloy catalyst was prepared by power electroless plating method and characterized by induction coupled plasma (ICP), Brunauer Emmett Teller method (BET), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The catalytic performance of NiB/SiO₂ was investigated for the hydrogenation of furfuryl alcohol (FA) to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA). The effects of operational conditions, such as reaction temperature, pressure, and stirring rate were carefully studied. The proper conditions were determined as the following: pressure 2.0 MPa, temperature 120?C and stirring rate 550 r/min. A typical result with FA conversion of 99% and THFA selectivity of 100% was obtained under such conditions, which was close to that over Raney Ni.