Catalytic Hydrogenation of Levulinic Acid to Gamma-Valerolactone over Ni/ZrO2
Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering,Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Abstract：Five kinds of nickel supported zirconia (Ni/ZrO2) catalysts were prepared and characterized by N2 physisorption, X-Ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope(TEM) analysis. The effects of nickel loading and different reaction conditons on the catalytic activity were studied. The results showed that the conversion of levulinic acid increased with the increase of nickel content. It was found that the highest conversion could be achieved over 50 % Ni/ZrO2 and the highest turnover frequency(TOF) was obtained over 30% Ni/ZrO2. The reaction was accelerated with the increase of reaction temperature and much favored in dioxane than in water. The highest conversion of levulinic acid (99.1%) and yield of gamma-valerolactone (91.6%) were achieved after 9 hours under the conditions of 200 ℃ and hydrogen pressure of 5 MPa in dioxane.
