Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol by the Combined Use of Zeolite and Ni/Al2O3 as Catalysts: A Route for Achieving High Selectivity to 1-Propanol

Sequential two-layer catalysts were used for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol to remove its oxygen content in a continuous-flow fixed-bed reactor. The acidic H-beta catalyst layer was packed before the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst layer in the reactor. The sequential two-layer catalysts can provide good 1-propanol (1-PO) selectivities at high glycerol conversions (up to 69% selectivity at similar to 100% conversion). To our knowledge, the catalytic system in this work presented one of the best selectivities to 1-PO using non-noble metal based catalytic systems. A preliminary mechanistic study indicated that most of 1-PO in the products was generated from glycerol via a sequential two-time dehydration-hydrogenation mechanism.