Optimization and Kinetic Studies on Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol over SBA-15 Supported Bimetallic Copper-Cobalt Catalyst

In present work, hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FA) is studied over Co-Cu/SBA-15 as FA has wide range of industrial applications such as in the resin production, acid proof bricks, fibre glass, fibre concrete etc. The effects of different operating parameters such as temperature, pressure, catalyst amount, and furfural to 2-propanol molar ratio on the conversion of furfural to FA were determined and parameters were optimized by implementing Taguchi method as statistical tool. At the optimized conditions, the yield of FA was 96.7 %. The yield of FA was influenced by the parameters such as temperature and pressure significantly, as obtained by analysis of variance. Kinetic study revealed that the reaction followed pseudo-first order pathway with an activation energy of 9.2 kcal mol(-1).