Continuously efficient hydrodeoxygenation of glycerol into 1,3-propanediol over Pt/WOx/beta catalysts

The efficient and continuous hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of glycerol into 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) in a trickle bed reactor at 160 °C over Pt/WOx/beta catalyst was developed. XRD, XPS, UV-Vis DRS, HAADF-STEM, ICP, and DRIFT analyses indicated that the synthesized catalyst with 1.5 wt% Pt and 0.5 wt% W exhibited satisfactory dispersion of metals within 2.0 nm particle size due to the strong interactions between metals and support. With 1.0 h−1 of weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) and 500 g L−1 glycerol, the selectivity of 1,3-PDO and n-PrOH were 51.3% and 32.1%, which corresponded to their space-time yield (STY) values of 2.5 g gPt−1 h−1 and 1.5 g gPt−1 h−1, respectively. After 600 h of stable and continuous running, the Pt/WOx/beta catalyst still maintained good activity, which was attributed to the highly dispersed metals without aggregation. There was satisfactory consistency between the proposed kinetic parameters for glycerol consumption, and 1,3-PDO and n-PrOH formation and the actual HDO results.