Construction of a highly active and water-resistant Ni-based catalyst for the HDO reaction of phenol

Abstract

Aqueous-phase hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived phenolic compounds is considered as one of the most promising ways to convert biomass into fuels and value-added chemicals. The aim of this study is to develop highly active and water-resistant catalysts with a low price. For this purpose, with cheap transition Ni as the active phase, supported Ni@C/M_xO_y(x) and Ni@C/Al₂O₃(5)-glucose catalysts (M_xO_y stands for ZrO₂, CeO₂, TiO₂ or Al₂O₃ and x represents Ni loading) were prepared from Ni-MOF-74/M_xO_y (x). The prepared catalysts were characterized by TG, H₂-TPR, XRD, BET, HRTEM, XPS and NH₃-TPD. The effect of the support, Ni loading and glucose incorporation on the HDO performance of phenol was investigated. The results showed that the Ni@C/Al₂O₃(5) catalyst with Al₂O₃ as the support and a low Ni loading of 5% exhibited the best HDO activity. The superior performance with such a low Ni loading greatly reduced the cost of the catalysts. Furthermore, the total yield of the deoxygenated product over Ni@C/Al₂O₃(5) was increased by 22.3% after the incorporation of glucose when the molar ratio of phenol/water was 1 : 1.25. In addition, the fixed-bed reactor experiment revealed that the HDO performance of Ni@C/Al₂O₃(5)-glucose almost remained stable during 48 h on-stream operation, indicating its excellent stability.