OP-II-3

DEHYDRATION OF GLYCEROL TO ACROLEINHaider M.H., Dummer N.F., Miedziak P., Taylor S.H., Willock D.,Knight D.W., Hutchings G.J.OP-III-A-7Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Wales, UK,CF10 3AT, haidermh@cardiff.ac.ukGlycerol can be converted into many valuable products which act asintermediates for the synthesis of industrially important chemicals [1]. Moreover, itsready availability as a major by-product from the production of bio-diesel has made itattractive [3,4]. Acrolein is one of the products from glycerol dehydration [5]. Thisprocess has tremendous industrial applications in the manufacture of chemicals likeacrylic acid esters, super absorber polymer production, detergents [5-9]. In thepresent work, comparison between different catalysts has been made in order todetermine which characteristics impart high selectivity towards acrolein.HOOHOHsolid catalyst- 2H 2 OODehydration of glycerol to acrolein (scheme 1) was carried out in a fixed bed flowreactor at the gas solid interface. Vaporisation of glycerol (0.5 wt% in water, 1 ml/h)occurred in a pre-heater, which was kept constant at 290°C while that of the catalyticreactor was changed over the range of 175 - 400°C, in order to see the change inselectivity towards acrolein. The experiments were run in an inert atmosphere ofhelium at a flow of 100 ml/min. Products were collected in water trap cooled withice/water, followed by a liquid nitrogen trap to ensure complete recovery of liquidproducts. The analysis was conducted off line with Varian CP 3800 gaschromatograph equipped with capillary column (i.d. 0.53 X 30m).Various acid catalysts were prepared and evaluated at different temperatures.The best performing catalyst gave 92mole % selectivity towards acrolein at atemperature of 220°C. Glycerol conversion was 100% with a carbon mass balance of100%, giving a space time yield of 4.61X10 –3 Kg Acrolein m –3 catalystS –1 .163