2,5-DMF production through hydrogenation of real and synthetic 5-HMF over transition metal catalysts supported on carriers with different nature

Catalytic hydrogenolysis reaction of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural platform molecule to produce 2,5-dimethylfuran conversion was studied. For that purpose noble (Pt and Ru) and non-noble (Ni and Cu) metal catalysts supported on acid (HYAl2O3 and Al2O3) and basic (ZrO2 and TiO2) supports were used. All of the tested catalysts were able to convert completely HMF. However, among the mentioned catalysts, the Cu catalyst supported on ZrO2 showed the best behavior in terms of DMF selectivity, probably due to the neutral nature associated to ZrO2 support. Moreover, this catalyst was studied in order to know the influence of some reaction parameters on DMF selectivity. As results obtained with CuZr catalyst concluded, a temperature increase had not influence on the aforementioned parameter because the reaction is exothermic. However, the type of feed, the increment of the pressure and the space velocity decrease improved the DMF selectivity.