High yield production of 2-methyltetrahydrofuran biofuel with reusable Ni-Co catalysts

International audienceThe sustainable production of environmentally-friendly alternative fuels from renewable resources is one of the worldwide high-prospect strategies for future biorefinery schemes. 2methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF) that can be obtained from renewable sources such as lignocellulosic biomass is considered as an ideal green fuel competitive to benchmarks products due to high-value properties like high energy density. In our work we showed that bimetallic Ni-Co/g-Al2O3 catalysts with an appropriate amount of Ni are worth robust, reusable and cheap earth-abundant non-noble metals-based catalysts enabling the high yield production of 2-MTHF. The factors allowing the activity to be strongly boosted compared to the monometallic counterparts while keeping a high selectivity to the targeted 2-MTHF product were identified and discussed. Among the key factors we identified the role of the Ni-Co interaction allowing the Ni availability at the surface of the catalyst to be enhanced. Additionally, the surface acidity was recognized as another important factor. Silica supported catalysts were selective towards the 1,4-pentanediol (1,4-PDO) intermediate obtained by GVL dehydration, while more acidic g-Al2O3 was pushing the reaction further towards 2-MTHF. The synthesis parameters were optimized in terms of reduction temperature (500°C) and Ni:Co ratio (1:4) on the most active g-Al2O3 supported catalyst