Catalytic transfer hydrogenation of biomass-derived levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone over Sn/Al-SBA-15 catalysts

Gamma valerolactone (GVL) is an important chemical feedstock from which several value-added fine chemicals, fuels and fuel additives are manufactured. GVL is the product obtained in the hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA), which in turn is generally manufactured from several renewable resources such as pentoses and hexoses. The present work deals with the synthesis of SBA-15 and Sn loaded catalysts [x% Sn/Al-SBA-15 (x = Si/Sn = 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 with Si/Al = 25)] using a hydrothermal in situ method. A variety of both bulk and surface characterization techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, BET, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, XPS, TGA/DTA and UV-DRS were used to characterize the bare and Sn/Al-SBA-15 catalysts. The characterization studies revealed the presence of Sn species well dispersed in the uniform pore channels of Al-SBA-15. All the synthesized catalysts were tested in the liquid-phase catalytic transfer hydrogenation of levulinic acid at atmospheric N-2 pressure under mild reaction conditions. Among them, the Sn/Al-SBA-15 (Si/Sn = 25) catalyst showed remarkable conversion of levulinic acid (99%) and very high selectivity towards GVL (100%). The various reaction parameters such as metal loading, reaction temperature, reaction time and catalyst weight were optimized to get the maximum conversion of levulinic acid with high selectivity towards the desired product. The stability and reusability of the best catalysts were also tested up to five cycles and there was not much variation in the catalytic activity in terms of conversion.