A study of furfural decarbonylation on K-doped Pd/Al2O 3 catalysts

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.molcata.2010.11.016

Vapor-phase decarbonylation of furfural to furan was performed on K-doped Pd/Al₂O₃ catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor. A series of K-doped catalysts were prepared by impregnation method with various potassium salt precursors and different potassium content. The catalyst evaluation results revealed that the doping of K not only promoted the furfural decarbonylation, but also suppressed the hydrogenation side reaction. Among the investigated catalysts, Pd-K₂CO₃/Al₂O₃ (K% = 8 wt.%) presented the best performance and achieved the furan yields up to 99.5% at 260 °C. The selectivity of 2-methylfuran would approach zero at high K content (K% > 4 wt.%). Furthermore, the catalysts were characterized by BET, SEM, ICP, H₂-TPR, H₂-TPD, H₂-chemisorption, CO-FTIR, furfural-TPSR, and furfural-FTIR experiments. It was shown that the dopant phase had a remarkable effect on the precursor Pd²⁺ and the reduced Pd metal particles. Furfural-TPSR and furfural-FTIR exhibited that K-doped catalysts enhanced the furfural adsorption and promoted the decarbonylation reaction, which was due to the different adsorption mode and intensity of furfural on K-doped and undoped samples. Besides, the decrease of C-O adsorption of furfural (η₂(C,O)-furfural) by K doping is the main reason for suppressing the furfural hydrogenation.