Selective Hydrodeoxygenation of Alkyl Lactates to Alkyl Propionates with Fe‐based Bimetallic Supported Catalysts

Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of methyl lactate (ML) to methyl propionate (MP) was performed with various base‐metal supported catalysts. A high yield of 77 % MP was obtained with bimetallic Fe–Ni/ZrO 2 in methanol at 220 °C and 50 bar H 2 . A synergistic effect of Ni increased the yield of MP significantly when using Fe–Ni/ZrO 2 instead of Fe/ZrO 2 alone. Moreover, the ZrO 2 support contributed to improve the yield as a phase transition of ZrO 2 from tetragonal to monoclinic occurred after metal doping giving rise to fine dispersion of the Fe and Ni on the ZrO 2 , resulting in a higher catalytic activity of the material. Interestingly, it was observed that Fe–Ni/ZrO 2 also effectively catalyzed methanol reforming to produce H 2 in situ, followed by HDO of ML, yielding 60 % MP at 220 °C with 50 bar N 2 instead of H 2 . Fe–Ni/ZrO 2 also catalyzed HDO of other short‐chain alkyl lactates to the corresponding alkyl propionates in high yields around 70 %. No loss of activity of Fe–Ni/ZrO 2 occurred in five consecutive reaction runs demonstrating the high durability of the catalyst system.