Exploring the Hydrogenation of Furfural in the Liquid Phase by High-Throughput Screening of Commercial Catalysts: Effects of Temperature, Solvents, and Promoters on the Production of 2-methylfuran

2-methylfuran from the hydrogenation of furfural could be a viable green route to get synthetic gasoline or to be used as a blending fuel. However, it is currently produced as a by-product during the gas phase production of furfuryl alcohol using Cu catalysts, presenting fairly low productivities, while due to the complexity of the reaction, other more active metals lead mostly to by-products. Recently, solvents and promoters have been demonstrated to be useful for tuning the kinetics of the reaction. Here, to speed up the industrialization of 2-methylfuran, 48 commercial catalysts, involving the use of Cu, Ni, Co, Ir, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, and Re on several supports and different metallic loadings, were tested employing a high-throughput approach in the liquid phase at 60, 120 and 180°C, using ethyl acetate, chlorobenzene, ethyl acetate, n-heptane and two mixed solvents involving a 0.5 w.t. % CHCl3/n-heptane and a 20 w.t. % isopropanol/n-heptane mixture. Among the selected catalysts, the top performing ones, in order of importance, were Ir/C, allowing up to 89% 2-methylfuran yields, followed by Ni/Al2O3 in the presence of chlorine as a promoter, and Cu/ZnO/Al2O3. Besides relations between the achieved yields, active metal loadings, and support effects, useful correlations have been investigated between activity, selectivity, and solvents polarity.