Effect of Calcination Rate on Performance of Co-precipitated Cu-MgO Catalyst in Hydrogenation of Furfural

Co-precipitated Cu-MgO catalysts were prepared and evaluated for the gas-phase hydrogenation of furfural. The effect of heating rate at the calcination step was studied by comparing the performance of three catalysts prepared via the same procedure but calcined at different heating rates. The results established that altering the heating rate could influence the structural properties of the catalyst samples and hence their activity and selectivity. An extremely poor catalytic activity and selectivity (lower than 0.1% conversion of furfural and 40% selectivity towards furfuryl alcohol after 240 min time-on-stream) belonged to the catalyst that was prepared with the lowest calcination rate (1 Kmin–1), while the other two catalysts prepared with the calcination rate of 5 and 10 Kmin–1 indicated more than 88% conversion of furfural and 85% furfuryl alcohol selectivity during this run length.