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

Co-precipitated cu-mgo catalysts were prepared and evaluated for the gas-phasehydrogenation of furfural. the effect of heating rate at the calcination step was studiedby comparing the performance of three catalysts prepared via the same procedure butcalcined at different heating rates. the results established that altering the heating ratecould influence the structural properties of the catalyst samples and hence their activityand selectivity. an extremely poor catalytic activity and selectivity (lower than 0.1%conversion of furfural and 40% selectivity towards furfuryl alcohol after 240 min timeon-stream) belonged to the catalyst that was prepared with the lowest calcination rate (1kmin–1), while the other two catalysts prepared with the calcination rate of 5 and 10kmin–1 indicated more than 88% conversion of furfural and 85% furfuryl alcoholselectivity during this run length.