Engineering Cu Supported Y-Zeolite Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of γ-Valerolactone to Methyl Tetrahydrofuran

A sustainable approach to chemistry is achieved by utilizing heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of chemicals derived from biomass. Using impregnation, Cu/Y-Zeolite catalysts were prepared in this work for hydrogenating γ-valerolactone (GVL) to methyl tetrahydrofuran (MTHF). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Temperature programmed reduction (TPR-H ₂ ), Temperature programmed desorption (TPD-NH ₃ ), UV-DRS, and HR-TEM were used for characterization of the synthesized catalysts in terms of their structure, surface, electronic and spectroscopic attributes. The Lewis and Bronsted acidity further confirmed by Py-IR spectroscopy. The N ₂ O decomposition studies reveals the copper surface area and copper particle size. When GVL was hydrogenated using a 5CYZ catalyst at a temperature of 250°C and a hydrogen pressure of 0.1MPa, the GVL conversion rate reached 92.1%, and the selectivity for MTHF was 84%. To achieve optimal conversion of GVL to MTHF with high selectivity, reaction conditions such as temperature, GVL input rate, and catalyst amount were fine-tuned.