Furfuryl Alcohol and Furfural Hydrogenation over Activated Carbon–supported Palladium Catalyst in Presence of Water and Carbon Dioxide

Abstract Hydrogenation of furfuryl alcohol and furfural over an activated carbon‐supported palladium catalyst was carried out and the effects of solvent and carbon dioxide on the activity and selectivity of the reactions were studied. For the hydrogenation of furfuryl alcohol and furfural, the addition of protic solvents led to a higher initial activity compared to that under neat conditions. Among the protic solvents, water caused the highest increase in the initial activities. When carbon dioxide was added to protic solvents, the initial activities increased further. For a system containing both water and carbon dioxide, the initial activity increased when the pressure of carbon dioxide introduced was increased up to 10 MPa, after which the activity remained almost constant. The results of the hydrogenation of furfural over the supported palladium catalyst showed that tetrahydrofurfural and furfuryl alcohol were the initial products; furfuryl alcohol was subsequently reduced to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol.