Direct hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived furans over Pt/CeO2 catalyst with high activity and stability

Conversion of biomass-derived furans to fine chemicals has raised wide interests recently. Here we show direct hydrogenolysis of furans to corresponding alcohols in i-propanol (i-PrOH) over a highly active and stable Pt/CeO2 catalyst. CeO2 as the support shows superior catalytic performance in comparison to other supports. The hydrogenolysis of furfural to 1,2-pentandiol (1,2-PeD) can be realized in high yields (up to 59.9%) under mild conditions. Moreover, this catalytic system shows good recyclability with no obvious activity loss after five successive runs, which goes a step further towards the industrial application of heterogeneous catalysts for fine chemical production from biomass.