Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol to Produce 1,3-Propanediol

Currently the large surplus of glycerol formed as a by-product during the production
of biodiesel offered an abundant and low cost feedstock. Researchers showed a surge
of interest in using glycerol as renewable feedstock to produce functional chemicals.
The main objective of this project is to find the most effective reaction temperature
and pressure that gives highest high selectivity and good conversions and selectivity
towards the production of 1,3-propanediol. This is because the product of glycerol
hydrogenolysis conventionally preferred towards ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol.
The effects of reaction temperature and hydrogen pressure on hydrogenolysis process
were studied. There are few stages involved in completing this project which are; i)
development of supported bi-metallic catalyst via incipient wetness impregnation
method, ii) characterized the catalyst prepared by temperature program reduction
(TPR), temperature program desorption (TPD), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier
Transformed Infrared (FTIR), iii) perform catalytic testing and analysis of the results
obtained. Hydrogenolysis of glycerol to propylene glycol was performed without
using any support or catalyst, by using zeolite catalyst support, and copper-nickel
catalysts at the optimum operating temperature and pressure obtained earlier.The
analysis of the product is done by using gas chromatography (GC) technique. From
the results obtained (test with bare zeolite), at the higher reaction temperature and
pressure, the conversion of glycerol is high. The optimum temperature and pressure
chosen are 200°C and 300 psi respectively. However, there is no selectivity towards
1,3-propanediol. For the reaction with Cu-Ni catalyst, the glycerol conversion is
3.23% And the selectivity towards 1,3-propanediol is 2.05%. While there is no
conversion of glycerol for the reaction without any support or catalyst.