Hydrogenation of Furfural with a Pt-Sn Catalyst: The Suitability to Sustainable Industrial Application

The liquid-phase hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol was carried out using a Pt-Sn/SiO₂ catalyst synthesized by coimpregnation to investigate the impact of synthesis and reaction conditions. The results showed that calcination of the catalyst at 450 °C gave the highest furfural conversion. An investigation on the reaction conditions found that furfural conversion increased with temperature and hydrogen pressure. Reuse of the catalyst was shown to be as effective as catalyst regeneration with a 3% loss in furfural conversion observed with each repeated use. The use of protic and aprotic solvents showed that furfural conversion was lower using an aprotic solvent such as toluene or propanone, but selectivity to furfuryl alcohol remained close to 100%. The two protic solvents, 1-propanol and 2-propanol, formed several additional products including 2-methyl furan, 2-propoxy methyl furan, 2-furaldehyde dipropyl acetal, difurfuryl ether, and 2-furaldehyde diethyl acetal.