Hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol over a Al2O3-supported platinum tungsten catalyst with two-dimensional open structure

This work investigated the effect of texture properties of the Al 2 O 3 -based catalysts on the catalytic performance for glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) in fixed bed reactor. Three kinds of Al 2 O 3 supports with different pore structures, namely rod-like (Al 2 O 3 -R), flake-like (Al 2 O 3 -F) and spindle-like (Al 2 O 3 -SP) were synthesized by hydrothermal crystallization method, and correspondingly catalysts were prepared by the incipient-wetness impregnation method. The properties of active components, Pt and WO x species, loaded on different Al 2 O 3 supports were similar, which was confirmed by N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis DRS spectroscopy, 27 Al MAS NMR, SEM, HR-TEM, NH 3 -TPD, Py-FTIR, H 2 -TPR and XPS. Considering the similar active sites, the distinct reaction performance of the catalysts mainly results from the texture properties. Flake-like catalyst containing the two-dimensional nanosheets with open pore structure significantly enhances the accessibility of active sites to the glycerol molecules, which contributes to increasing the efficiency of catalysts. The high glycerol conversion of 80.5% and the 1,3-PDO yield of 38.2% were achieved under low Pt loading and high space velocity.