Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

OP-2-13Cu CATALYSTS FOR HYDROGENOLYSIS OF GLYCEROLTO PROPYLENE GLYCOLVasiliadou E.S., Lemonidou A.A.Chemical Engineering Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and ChemicalProcess Engineering Research Institute, Thessaloniki, Greeceevasili@cperi.certh.gr, alemonidou@cheng.auth.grCatalytic hydrogenolysis of glycerol is an innovative process route for theproduction propanediols [1]. Ru-based catalysts proved to be very active for glycerolhydrogenolysis, but the selectivity to propylene glycol was not satisfactory [2]. In thiswork glycerol hydrogenolysis is investigated over Cu and bimetallic Ru-Cu supportedcatalysts in order to achieve high activity and improved propylene glycol selectivity.More specifically, the effect of the support morphological characteristics, different Culoadings and stability of the best performing catalyst was examined.Mono-(Cu:5&20wt%) and bimetallic (Ru:4.13,Cu:0.87wt%) catalysts supported onsilicate (SiO 2 and mesoporous HMS) were prepared using the wet impregnationmethod. The catalytic samples were characterized by various methods: BET, XRD,ICP, TPR. The tests were conducted in an autoclave reactor at 240°C and 80bar H 2employing pure glycerol.The evaluation the low Cu loading monometallic and bimetallic Ru-Cu catalystssupported on commercial SiO 2 and the as-synthesized HMS on glycerolhydrogenolysis showed that in the presence of Cu metal, the selectivity to propyleneglycol increases due to the ability of Cu to hydro-dehydrogenate C-O bond andsuppress C-C cleavage. The high surface area (970m 2·g –1 ) of the HMS mesoporoussupport stabilizes high metal loadings increasing their dispersion. The20wt%Cu/HMS catalyst exhibited both high activity (43%) and excellent propyleneglycol selectivity (91%) for 5h reaction time. Tests using spent catalyst for two times,resulted in an activity decrease of almost 50% probably due to metal aggregation, butthe selectivity to propylene glycol remains constant in high levels.References:[1]. Soares, R.R., Simonetti, D.A., Dumesic J.A., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 3982-3985.[2]. E.S. Vasiliadou, E. Heracleous, I.A. Vasalos, A.A. Lemonidou, Appl. Catal. B:Env. 2009, 92, 90-99.56