Hydrodeoxygenation of levulinic acid over Pd/ZrO2 catalysts

ESTEBAN G. GIORIA; GYULA NOVODÁRSZKI; LAURA GUTIERREZ,; ÁGNES SZEGEDI ; JÓZSEF VALYON; DHANAPATI DEKA; MAGDOLNA R. MIHÁLYI

Congreso; 8th FEZA Conference - Non-porous Materials; 2021

Levulinic acid (LA) can be produced from sugars, which can be obtained, forinstance, from lignocellulosic waste and by-products, in an acid-catalyzed processeven at an industrial scale. The most essential product of LA hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is γ-valerolactone(GVL), that can be blended with gasoline and is intermediate to get liquid alkenes,polymers, and fine chemicals. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous noble metals (mainly Ru) and non-noblemetal (Cu, Ni) catalysts are applied for the HDO of LA. Pd, supported on carbon, silica or niobium were also investigated as catalysts. Onlya few papers have been published about utilizing Pd/ZrO2 catalysts. Palladium chloride is a widely used precursor for the preparation of oxide supportedPd catalysts. Thermal decomposition of the Pd precursor impregnated onthe support, results in a catalyst, retaining chloride that can either accelerate orsuppress reactions.Study of the chloride effect Development of a novel preparation method to produce chloride-free zirconia supportedPd catalyst (Pd/ZrO2(NH4)) for efficient HDO of LA to GVL. For comparison a catalyst was prepared by calcining H2PdCl4-impregnated zirconia(Pd/ZrO2(Cl)).