Vapor Phase Decarbonylation of Furfural to Furan over Nickel Supported on SBA-15 Silica Catalysts

Vapor-phasetransformations of furfural over SBA-15 silica supported Ni catalysts under H2 in a continuous-flow reactor at atmospheric pressure and 170°C and 230°C wereinvestigated. Two different samples having Ni loadings of 5 and 20 wt% (denotedhere by SBA-5Ni and SBA-20Ni, respectively) were prepared by impregnation andcharacterized by atomic absorption spectroscopy, N2 sorptionanalysis, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmissionelectron microscopy. Furan and furfuryl alcohol were two primary products resulting,respectively, from decarbonylation and hydrogenation of furfural. Under theconditions of the study, both reactions exhibited structure sensitivity evidencedby changes in product selectivities with variable Ni loadings. Compared withSBA-20Ni, the 5 wt% Ni catalyst showed better catalytic activity, reaching afurfural conversion of 100 mol% and a selectivity to furan of 98 mol%, after 5h of time-on-stream at 230°C.