Highly Efficient Vapor‐Phase Hydrogenation of Biomass‐Derived Levulinic Acid Over Structured Nanowall‐Like Nickel‐Based Catalyst

With ever increasing demand of sustainable energy, biomass has been regarded as an ideal alternative to fossil resources. Herein, hierarchical three‐dimensional nickel‐based nanowalls on a nickel foam substrate were fabricated by a Ni–Zr–Al layered double hydroxide (NiZrAl–LDH) precursor route, which involved in situ growth of the Zr‐containing precursor on the Ni foam strut through surface activation without an external nickel source. After calcination–reduction treatment, the nanowalls were applied as a structured catalyst for selectively hydrogenating biomass‐derived levulinic acid to γ‐valerolactone. Systematic characterization revealed that highly dispersed Ni nanoparticles could be generated on the platelet‐like Zr‐containing oxide matrix derived from hierarchical 3 D NiZrAl–LDH nanowalls. Under vapor‐phase, solvent‐free hydrogenation conditions (250 °C, ambient pressure), the yield and productivity for as‐fabricated Ni‐based structured catalyst could reach as high as 97.7 % and 5.747 kg GVL  kg cat −1  h −1 , respectively. Such high catalytic efficiency was reasonably attributable to highly dispersed Ni nanoparticles and abundant surface Lewis acid sites, as well as favorable heat‐transfer nature of present catalytic system. Moreover, the newly developed structured nanowall‐like Ni‐based catalyst possesses high structural and chemical stability, which makes the vapor‐phase hydrogenation process promising in terms of green sustainable chemistry.