Selective hydrogenolysis of agricultural straw-based cellulose to propylene glycol and acetol over acidic WOx/ZrO2

WOx/ZrO2 is effective in the hydrogenolysis of cellulose to C3 products but the active sites on the W–Zr interfaces are hardly controlled. Herein, we prepared WOx/ZrO2 catalysts with active WOx species by simply varying the reduction temperatures, which selectively achieved C3 alcohol formation. A series of characterizations showed that increased reduction temperatures (400–600 °C) led to the formation of more dispersed WOx, while higher reduction temperatures (>600 °C) contributed to producing aggregated WO3 and W2C. At 600 °C, the dispersity of WOx peaked with a W5+/∑Wn+ ratio of 19%, providing abundant Lewis acid sites and oxygen vacancies (Vo), which were the active sites for glucose isomerization to fructose and C–C cleavage of fructose. A selectivity of 48% for C3 alcohols was obtained over the optimized WOx/ZrO2(600 °C) + Ru/AC catalyst.