γ-Butyrolactone was produced highly selectively from biomass-derived 1,4-butanediol by vapor-phase dehydrocyclization over novel copper-silica nanocomposite catalyst. Compared with usual Cu(12)/SiO2, the highly Cu-loaded SiO2 nanocomposite (80 wt%) exhibited high catalyst performance with 98% yield on 400 h stream without significant deactivation even in the absence of H2.
