Synthesis of Porous Amorphous SiO2−Al2O3 Solid Acid Catalyst for Efficiently Catalyzing GVL Decarboxylation to Butene

Graphical The porous amorphous ASA(Si/Al=20) was quickly synthesized by gel-gel method in one step, and used to catalyze γ-valerolactone (GVL) to butane. It has large specific surface area (430.20 m 2 g −l ), suitable Brønsted/Lewis ratio (0.66) and enough weak acid site content (0.5554 mmol g −1 ). Under the optimized reaction conditions, 90 % butene yield can be obtained in 180 min at 300 °C. In this study, porous amorphous SiO 2 −Al 2 O 3 (ASA(Si/Al= x )) with different Si/Al ratios was synthesized by gel-gel method, and used to catalyze green renewable energy source γ-valerolactone (GVL) to butene. Research indicated that all prepared catalysts had large amounts of disordered mesoporous with the pore size in range of 2–13 nm. For the optimal ASA(Si/Al=20) catalyst, its specific surface area is 430.20 m 2 g −l and pore size is about 8.13 nm. Due to the presence of suitable Al species, ASA(Si/Al=20) has the largest Brønsted/Lewis ratio and 0.5554 mmol g −1 weak acid site content. Under the optimized reaction conditions, 90 % butene yield can be obtained in 180 min at 300 °C. In addition, the regeneration performance of the ASA(Si/Al=20) catalyst is also satisfactory, and the yield of butene can be above 60 % after 5 th cycles. After activation, the spent catalyst can be regenerated, and about 78 % butene yield can be also obtained.