DEVELOPMENT OF BIFUNCTIONAL HETEROGENEOUS CATALYSTS FOR THE UPGRADING OF BIO-BASED GLYCEROL TOWARD METHYL LACTATE
(2023) PhD Day 2023 — Location: Louvain-la-Neuve (26.May.2023)
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- Biofuels have emerged as potential alternative as they can be produced from bio-based materials in a way that is more environmentally friendly and economically sustainable.1 Glycerol is the main by-product of biodiesel production and account for 10 wt.% of its production. Glycerol valorization toward high-value chemicals is of particular importance to increase the value chain of biodiesel production. Numerous researches to valorize glycerol are therefore emerging and showing that it can be transformed into various added-value products, such as methyl lactate (ML). Heterogeneous catalytic systems for the valorization of glycerol to methyl lactate should combine two types of active sites: (i) a noble metal (Au, Pd, Pt) for the oxidation of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone and (ii) Bronsted and Lewis acidity for the triose isomerization to form methyl lactate.2 Great efforts are therefore made to develop multifunctional catalysts bearing the two different catalytic species, able to efficiently run the different step of the reaction in a unique reactor.3 Such systems allow to develop greener and cost-effective processes but their synthesis can be challenging as multi steps synthesis can hinder the pre-existing active sites, be time-consuming and produce many wastes. In this work, we synthesized bifunctional catalysts combining noble metal(s) nanoparticles (Au, Pd, Pt, AuPd) and Sn for the Lewis acidity, leveraging on the aerosol-assisted sol-gel process (Scheme 1) We screened different metals and loadings, as well as the impact of using a stabilizer during synthesis, to optimize the catalytic performance of the materials.4 The bifunctional catalysts were characterized using various techniques, including XRD, TEM, and XPS. Our results showed that the combination of metals using the aerosol-assisted sol-gel process resulted in the successful incorporation of the metals, good textural properties and excellent catalytic performance. The bifunctional catalysts showed highest selectivity towards methyl lactate was observed for the Pt(2%)-Sn bifunctional catalyst, with a methyl lactate selectivity of 90% and glycerol conversion of 66% after 6 hours. These findings could have significant implications for the development of more sustainable and efficient processes for the valorization of biomass and bio-based compounds.
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Van der Verren, M., & Debecker, D. (2023). DEVELOPMENT OF BIFUNCTIONAL HETEROGENEOUS CATALYSTS FOR THE UPGRADING OF BIO-BASED GLYCEROL TOWARD METHYL LACTATE. PhD Day 2023, Louvain-la-Neuve. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/105294