Bifunctional catalysts for the aldol condensation of furfural with acetone in liquid phase

Catalytic aldol condensation and hydrogenation of a mixture of Acetone and Furfural was performed over different catalysts in a batch reactor. The different catalysts were synthesized through different methods such as deposition-precipitation, calcination and impregnation. The chosen feedstock was subject to different reaction conditions in terms of temperature, reagents molar ratio and reaction time and the results were reported. Under the same operational conditions, conversion, selectivity and yield were calculated and compared among the different catalysts used. The results showed high conversion and high selectivity towards cross-aldol products in the aldol condensation using Calcinated dolomite as a catalyst. Using calcinated dolomite doped with different metals the selectivity remained high towards the two cross-aldol products (FAc and F2Ac) with all the catalyst used. In the following hydrogenation with the same catalysts there were very different conversions and selectivities towards a variety of products more or less hydrogenated. In particular the Pt doped calcinated dolomite showed important traces of unreacted furfural, some non-hydrogenated FAc and the absence of any C13 product. In the Ru doped calcinated dolomite there was full conversion and fully hydrogenation of the C8 products, but no C13 products. In the Pd doped calcinated dolomite there was high conversion of Furfural, and the presence of both C8 and C13 products, hydrogenated with different degrees.