Aplicação de catalisadores à base de rutênio na valorização de derivados da biomassa

Abstract

The selective hydrogenation of levulinic acid and furfural were studied, molecules obtained from biomass. For these reactions were used heterogeneous based ruthenium catalysts. The obtaining of selective catalysts that can operate in milder conditions of pressure andtemperature is a relevant topic for chemical industry. One of the challenges in the levulinic acid hydrogenation is the prepare of solid matrices containing ruthenium heterogeneous catalyststo achieve high catalytic activity and operate in milder conditions. This way, was prepared a hybrid support of titania and silica (TiO2-SiO2), in which ruthenium was supported in catalyst surface and the catalytic activity was evaluated for the levulinic acid hydrogenation to -valerolactone. The obtained results showed that the catalyst using the hybrid support (89% of yield for -valerolactone) presented a higher catalytic activity than the pure TiO2 as support (84% of yield for -valerolactone). The catalyst Ru/TiO2-SiO2 is capable to be reutilized for amajor number of cycles than the catalyst Ru/TiO2. The selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol using a monometallic catalyst is one main challenges for this reaction. The ruthenium doped catalysts prepared in this work were applied in the furfural hydrogenation andwere obtained high yields of furfuryl alcohol 91% for the titanium-silica catalyst using CTAB as surfactant. Also the reuse and catalyst reactivation tests presented satisfactory results. During the reuse test was possible to understand the role of titania in the catalyst surface exerted in the catalytic hydrogenation of furfural.