Gas-phase Dehydration of Glycerol over Supported Silicotungstic Acids Catalysts

The gas-phase dehydration of glycerol to acrolein was carried out over 10 wt % HSiW catalysts supported on different supports, viz. $\gamma-Al_2O_3$, $SiO_2-Al_2O_3$, $TiO_2$, $ZrO_2$, $SiO_2$, AC, $CeO_2$ and MgO. The same reaction was also conducted over each support without HSiW for comparison. Several characterization techniques, $N_2$-physisorption, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia ($NH_3$-TPD), temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) with mass spectroscopy and CHNS analysis were employed to characterize the catalysts. The glycerol conversion generally increased with increasing amount of acid sites. Ceria showed the highest 1-hydroxyacetone selectivity at $315^{\circ}C$ among the various metal oxides. The supported HSiW catalyst showed superior catalytic activity to that of the corresponding support. Among the supported HSiW catalysts, HSiW/$ZrO_2$ and HSiW/$SiO_2-Al_2O_3$ showed the highest acrolein selectivity. In the case of HSiW/$ZrO_2$, the initial catalytic activity was recovered after the removal of the accumulated carbon species at $550^{\circ}C$ in the presence of oxygen.