Journal of Environmental Research

Catalytic conversion of furfural to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol over supported palladium nanoparticles under mild conditions

Joint Event on 5^th International Conference on Pollution Control and Sustainable Environment & 10^th Edition of International Conference on Water: Pollution, Treatment & Research
March 14-16, 2019 London, UK

Reem Albilali and Stuart H Taylor

Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
Cardiff University, UK

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Environ Res

Abstract

The hydrogenation of biomass derived furfural using a series of supported palladium nanoparticles prepared via sol immobilization technique was investigated under mild conditions. The effect of support type as a major factor influencing the chemoselectivity of the formyl group was investigated using silica, alumina and titania as supports. It was found the highest selectivity towards the desired product (tetra hydrofurfuryl alcohol) was observed using the immobilization on titania support. Furthermore, the effect of metal loading was investigated, and the results indicated that best catalytic performance was observed using the 1% Pd/TiO2. The catalysts were characterized using TEM, XPS and XRD and the structure-activity relationship was discussed.

Biography

Reem Albilali is an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry at IAU University, Saudi Arabia since 2012. Her research interests are the synthesis and characterization of supported metal nanoparticles and their catalytic applications, the conversion of biomass derived molecules to biofuel. In September 2015, she joined Cardiff Catalysis Institute at Cardiff University, UK, as a Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher for 2 years. She has many publications in both Arabic and English language, and she is a (MRSC) member in the Royal Chemical Society (RSC) and a member in the American Chemical Society, Saudi Chemical Society and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE).