Abstract:Ni/SiO2 catalyst was prepared by coprecipitation method, with nickel nitrate as nickel source and acid/alkaline silica sol as silica source. The catalytic performance for 2-methylfuran (2-MF) gas phase hydrogenation to 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF) of the catalyst was evaluated in a fixed bed reactor.The catalysts were characterized by XRD, N2 isothermal adsorption and desorption, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, XPS, FT-IR and TEM, in order to investigate the effect of acidity and alkalinity of silica sol on the catalytic performance. The results showed that the Ni/SiO2 catalyst prepared with acidic silica sol possessed more amount of weak acid sites and medium strong acid sites, larger specific surface area and average pore size, which was beneficial for the improvement of catalyst activity and 2-MTHF selectivity. The catalyst is stable in 200 hours at reaction temperature of 90 ℃, 2 MPa, WHSV=4.4 h?1, with a 2-MTHF yield of 95.5%.
