Hydrodeoxygenation of vicinal OH groups over heterogeneous rhenium catalyst promoted by palladium and ceria support

Heterogeneous ReOx-Pd/CeO2 catalyst showed excellent performance for simultaneous hydrodeoxygenation of vicinal OH groups. High yield (>99%), turnover frequency (300 h(-1)), and turnover number (10,000) are achieved in the reaction of 1,4-anhydroerythritol to tetrahydrofuran. This catalyst can be applied to sugar alcohols, and mono-alcohols and diols are obtained in high yields (≥85%) from substrates with even and odd numbers of OH groups, respectively. The high catalytic performance of ReOx-Pd/CeO2 can be assigned to rhenium species with +4 or +5 valence state, and the formation of this species is promoted by H2/Pd and the ceria support.