Single Pot Transfer Hydrogenation and Aldolization of Furfural Over Metal Oxide Catalysts N. S. Biradar 1 • A. M. Hengne 1 • S. S. Sakate 1 • R. K. Swami 1 • C. V. Rode 1 Received: 24 May 2016 / Accepted: 4 June 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract One pot catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FAL) by using hydrogen producing alcohols and simultaneous aldolization of car- bonyl compounds produced during CTH, with furfural was achieved over non-noble metal oxides with bifunctional sites. Basic sites of MgO responsible for abstraction of proton showed complete conversion of furfural to give FAL and C8 monomer in a ratio of 3:1, respectively, the later altered to 1:1 by incorporating Al into MgO. Catalyst stability was established by its four cycles study. Graphical Abstract Keywords Furfural  Furfuryl alcohol  Transfer hydrogenation  Aldol  Metal oxides Abbreviations Al 2 O 3 Aluminum nitrate B Boron CT Conversion versus time CTH Catalytic transfer hydrogenation FA Furfural-acetone adduct F2A Furfural-acetone-furfural adduct FFR Furfural FAL Furfuryl alcohol 5-HMF 5-hydroxymethyl furfural 5-MF 5- methyl furfural IPA Iso-propyl alcohol MgO Magnesium oxide K Potassium K 2 CO 3 Potassium carbonate Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10562-016-1786-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & C. V. Rode cv.rode@ncl.res.in 1 Chemical Engineering and Process Development Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra 411008, India 123 Catal Lett DOI 10.1007/s10562-016-1786-6