Reaction Pathways for Catalytic Gas-Phase Oxidation of Glycerol Over Mixed Metal Oxides W
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Catalysis – Innovative Applications in Petrochemistry and Refining DGMK Conference October 4-6, 2011, Dresden, Germany Reaction Pathways for Catalytic Gas-Phase Oxidation of Glycerol over Mixed Metal Oxides W. Suprun, R. Gläser, H. Papp Institute of Chemical Technology, Universität Leipzig, Germany Abstract Glycerol as a main by-product from bio-diesel manufacture is a cheap raw material with large potential for chemical or biochemical transformations to value-added C3-chemicals. One possible way of glycerol utilization involves its catalytic oxidation to acrylic acid as an alternative to petrochemical routes. However, this catalytic conversion exhibits various problems such as harsh reaction conditions, severe catalyst coking and large amounts of undesired by-products. In this study, the reaction pathways for gas-phase conversion of glycerol over transition metal oxides (Mo, V und W) supported on TiO2 and SiO2 were investigated by two methods: (i) steady state experiments of glycerol oxidation and possible reactions intermediates, i.e., acrolein, 3-hydroxy propionaldehyde and acetaldehyde, and (ii) temperature-programmed surface reaction (TPSR) studies of glycerol conversion in the presence and in the absence of gas-phase oxygen. It is shown that the supported W- , V and Mo-oxides possess an ability to catalyze the oxidation of glycerol to acrylic acid. These investigations allowed us to gain a deeper insight into the reaction mechanism. Thus, based on the obtained results, three possible reactions pathways for the selective oxidation of glycerol to acrylic acid on the transition metal-containing catalysts are proposed. The major pathways in presence of molecular oxygen are a fast successive destructive oxidation of glycerol to COx and the dehydration of glycerol to acrolein which is a rate-limiting step Introduction Glycerol is the main by-product of transesterification of vegetable oils for the production of bio-diesel. Currently, about 1,2 Mio. t/a of raw glycerol is produced in the EU-countries. The massive increase in the bio-diesel production goes hand in hand with the availability of large amounts of crude glycerol, which must be valorised. An economical study has shown that a competitive production of acrylic acid from glycerol may be possible if the price of glycerol would be less than 300 US$/t [1]. In 2010 refined glycerol still had a price of 450 to 500 US$/t. But crude glycerol was only around 80 to 100 US $/t. This makes crude glycerol a potentially very competitive raw material for the production of basic and fine chemicals. The catalytic dehydration of glycerol to acrolein, acetol and/or hydrogenolysis to propanediols was intensively investigated at the last decade [2], but literature about a conversion of glycerol to acrylic acid without intermediates is very limited. The synthesis of acrylic acid is currently based on the selective oxidation of acrolein or propene over complex multicomponent Mo-based catalyst. Titania and silica are suitable catalyst supports for selective gas-phase conversion of hydrocarbons to carboxylic acids. As part of our ongoing research for the catalytic conversion of glycerol [3, 4], we have studied the catalytic behaviour of catalysts containing Mo, V and W oxides supported on titania and silica in absence and presence of oxygen. The presented work is aimed to clarify the role of transition metal oxide components and some reaction intermediates for dehydration and/or selective oxydehydration of glycerol. DGMK-Tagungsbericht 2011-2, ISBN 978-3-941721-17-3 253 Catalysis – Innovative Applications in Petrochemistry and Refining Experimental Titania and silica catalysts loaded with Mg, Mo, W and V oxides were prepared by impregnation of precursors with aqueous solutions of magnesium nitrate, ammonium methavanadate, ammonium tungstate and ammonium molibdate. The following commercial 2 precursors were used: TiO2 (Millenium; BET 77 m /g) and SiO2 (Köstropur 050612: CWK 2 Bad Köstritz; BET: 305 m /g). The preparation of Ti-PO4 and Ti-Mo-W-V-PO4 catalysts was carried out by simultaneous impregnation of TiO2 with aqueous solutions of the corresponding metal salts and phosphoric acid. The impregnated samples were dried at 110 °C and calcined in air for 4 h at 450 °C. The atomic relation between metal, titania or silica was kept constant, i.e.: M:Ti or M:Si = 1:10 and Ti / PO4 = 12:1. The catalyst composition and notation of the prepared samples are listed in Tab.1. Textural properties were determined by adsorption–desorption isotherms of N2 using an ASAP 2010 apparatus (Micromeritics). Powder XRD patterns were recorded on a Bruker D8- Advance X–ray diffractometer using a nickel-filtered Cu Ka (0.15418 nm) source at 40 kV and 50 mA. Temperature programmed reduction of catalyst samples was carried out with a H2/Ar- mixture on an AMI 100 (Altamira) instrument equipped with a TCD detector. The catalysts were pretreated in a nitrogen flow at 300 °C for 30 min and after that cooled down to 30°C. The H2-TPR measurements were recorded from 30 to 700 °C in a H2/Ar flow (5 vol% H2; 50 ml min−1, heating rate: 10 K min−1). Catalytic tests for dehydration and oxidation of glycerol were carried out in a continuous flow fixed–bed reactor at atmospheric pressure. Aqueous solution of glycerol (5 wt%) was injected using a liquid flow controller and then evaporated at 200 °C (Bronkhorst) prior to entering the reactor. The concentrations of glycerol and water in the gas-feed were 0.18 vol% and 12 vol%, respectively. The product samples were analyzed by GC (Chrompack 9001) equipped with a capillary column (OPTIMA–WAX, 30 m MN) and −1 an FID detector: TP: 100 °C (2 min), 12 K min , 245 °C (5 min). Additionally CO and CO2 were analysed on-line using the FTIR Gas–Analyser 1301 (INNOVA). Results and discussion Textural properties and total acidity of the investigated catalysts are presented in Table 1. The specific surface area decreased after impregnation, especially for catalysts loaded with Tab. 1 Physico-chemical properties of catalysts loaded with transition metal oxides . Specific BET area Average pore Total acidity 2 Catalyst (m /g) diameter (Å) mmolNH3/g Support TiO2 SiO2 TiO2 SiO2 TiO2 SiO2 Mo 74 275 83 114 415 355 W 73 - 79 - 468 - Mg 71 - 86 - 65 - Mo-W 68 245 87 132 522 434 Mo-V 64 215 85 125 502 448 Mo-W-V 52 204 86 150 565 460 Mo-W-V-PO4 48 195 105 135 675 524 two or three metal oxides. The average pore diameter decreased after impregnation of TiO2 from 127 to ~75 Å and SiO2 from 150 to ~115 Å. All XRD patterns (Fig. 1) show intense peaks at a 2θ region of 20-35 corresponding to the metal oxides i.e: MoO3, V2O5, and WO3 and prove that the structure of the amorphous silica and crystalline anatase titania was not changed or destroyed during calcination at 450°C. Reflexes typical for molybdenum, vanadium and tungsten oxides indicate that the metal oxides were successfully introduced. No differences were observed between crystalline phase of mixed metal oxide Mo-W-V and samples additionally loaded with phosphoric acid. This indicated that no metal phosphates, 254 DGMK-Tagungsbericht 2011-2 Catalysis – Innovative Applications in Petrochemistry and Refining e.g., heteropolyacids (i.e. HPWO, HPMoO or HPVO) were formed during the impregnation in presence of phosphoric acid or calcination. It is generally accepted that the catalytic activity in the dehydration of glycerol is related to the catalyst acidity [2]. Therefore, TPD of ammonia were performed for all catalysts to characterize their total acidic properties. Tab. 1 shows that the incorporation of W-, V- and Mo-oxide led to an increased acidity. In contrast, the total acidity of titania loaded with Mg- oxide decreased which indicated basic properties of the TiO2-MgO systems. o V b a x Mo * W * * * * Ti-W Si-Mo-W x Ti-Mo-W Si-Mo o Ti-Mo Intensity (a.u.) Intensity Si-Mo-W-V Intensity (a.u.) Ti-Mo-V o o o Si-Mo-V Ti-Mo-W-V Si-Mo-W-V-PO Ti-Mo-W-V-PO 4 4 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 2 Theta (Grad) 2 Theta (Grad) Fig.1. X–ray diffraction patterns of titania (a) and silica (b) loaded with Mo, W and V- oxides. Comparison of dehydration activity. Glycerol possesses primary and secondary OH-groups and offers two main reaction pathways for dehydration with formation of hydroxyacetone and acrolein [2]. Additionally, different O-containing compounds such as acetone, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, allylalcohol, acetic acid, propionic acid, phenol and COx were detected. The effect of V-, W-, Mg-oxides and PO4 on the performance of the supported titania catalysts in the formation of main dehydration products of glycerol in absence of oxygen for the temperatureregion 180-330°C is presented in Fig. 2. Ti-Mo Ti-Mo-V Ti-Mo-W Ti-Mo-V-W Ti-PO4 Ti-Mg 60 60 Allylalcohol Hydroxyacetone 40 40 20 20 Selectivity (%) Selectivity 0 0 180 210 240 270 300 330 210 240 270 300 330 80 60 Acetic acid Acrolein 60 40 40 Selectivity (%) Selectivity 20 20 0 0 180 210 240 270 300 330 180 210 240 270 300 330 Temperature (°C) Fig. 2. Catalytic performance of titania catalysts loaded with PO4, Mg-, Mo- ,W- and V-oxide during dehydration of glycerol at different temperature. Data analysed after 4h of reaction. DGMK-Tagungsbericht 2011-2 255 Catalysis – Innovative Applications in Petrochemistry and Refining The results of GC-analysis show that all investigated catalysts exhibit full conversion only at temperature higher than 270°C. At temperature lower than 240°C the glycerol conversion was between 10 and 40%.The C-balance for catalytic tests at 180-240°C was between 55 and 60%.