Efficiently Recyclable and Easily Separable Ni-Fe Alloy Catalysts for Chemoselective Hydrogenation of Biomass-derived Furfural

Efficient Ni-Fe alloy catalysts prepared by environmentally friendly method exhibited high selectivity in the hydrogenation of furfural (FFald) to give 95% yield of furfuryl alcohol (FFalc) under 1 MPa of H2 at 423 K using Ni-Fe(2-1) hydrogen treated at 673 K catalyst (denoted as Ni-Fe(2-1)HT-673) within 3 h. No significant loss of catalytic activity after 4 running cycles showed a high stability of the catalysts on furfural hydrogenation.