| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42297 | Applied Catalysis A: General | 2010 | 15 Pages |
Catalytic conversion of glycerol was performed for production of value-added liquid chemicals. In this work, a systematic study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of operating conditions such as glycerol conversion to liquid chemical products in the presence of acid catalysts. Experiments were performed in a fixed-bed reactor using HZSM-5, HY, silica-alumina and γ-alumina catalysts. The temperature, carrier gas flow rate and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) were maintained in the range of 350–500 °C, 20–50 mL/min and 5.40–21.60 h−1, respectively. The main liquid chemicals detected in liquid product were acetaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde and hydroxyacetone. Under all experimental conditions complete glycerol conversion was obtained over silica-alumina and γ-alumina. A maximum liquid product yield of approximately 83 g/100 g feed was obtained with these two catalysts when the operating conditions were maintained at 380 °C, 26 mL/min and 8.68 h−1. Maximum glycerol conversions of 100 wt% and 78.8 wt% were obtained in the presence of HY and HZSM-5 at temperature, carrier gas flow rate and WHSV of 470 °C, 26 mL/min and 8.68 h−1. HY and HZSM-5 produced maximum liquid product of 80.9 and 59.0 g/100 g feed at temperature of 425 and 470 °C, respectively. Silica-alumina produced the maximum acetaldehyde (∼24.5 g/100 g feed) whereas γ-alumina produced the maximum acrolein (∼25 g/100 g feed). Also, silica-alumina produced highest formaldehyde yield of 9 g/100 g feed whereas HY produced highest acetol yield of 14.7 g/100 g feed. The effect of pore size of these catalysts was studied on optimum glycerol conversion and liquid product yield.
Graphical abstractThe optimum operating conditions to obtain the maximum glycerol conversion over HZSM-5 (78.8 wt%) and HY (100 wt%) were 470 °C, 26 mL/min and WHSV of 8.68 h−1. Optimum conversion increased from 80 to 100 wt% and optimum liquid product increased from 59 to 83.3 g/100 g feed when the pore size of catalyst was increased from 0.54 in case of HZSM-5 to 0.74 nm in case of HY; beyond which the effect pore of size was minimal.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (89 K)Download as PowerPoint slide
