Continuous catalytic process for the selective dehydration of glycerol over Cu-based mixed oxide

The selective dehydration of glycerol to hydroxyacetone (acetol) was studied with Cu-based mixed oxides derived from hydrotalcite as catalysts in a continuous flow fix-bed reactor. Catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation and characterized by ICP, N2 adsorption, XRD, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD, TPR and TEM. Different parameters were investigated to develop the most appropriate material as well as to determine the function of every metallic species. The optimized Cu-Mg-AlOx offered ≈60% acetol selectivity at >90% glycerol conversion (≈80% liquid yield, up to TOS = 9 h). The catalyst could be regenerated by calcination, achieving full activity recovery after five re-cycles. “In-situ” FTIR and XPS measurements evidenced that the presence of Cu, specially the most active Cu1+ species, was essential to carry out the dehydration to acetol with high reaction rates, and to form the preferred intermediate (with CO group); although a minor contribution from Cu0 and Cu2+ species could not be discarded.