Promoting effects of calcium on the performance of Cu-MgO catalyst in hydrogenation of furfuraldehyde

In the present study, the effects of calcium doping on the performance of the co-precipitated Cu-MgO catalysts prepared with different calcium loadings in the selective hydrogenation of furfuraldehyde were investigated. The results proved that the addition of this promoter had a remarkable impact on the catalytic performance. The conversion of furfuraldehyde enhanced up to 83% and the furfuryl alcohol selectivity remained above 96% over the run length on the promoted Cu-Ca-MgO catalyst. However, the conversion level decreased to 60% after 240 min of operation period which was still superior with respect to the negligible conversion with the non-promoted Cu-MgO catalyst.