A Review on Catalytic Dehydration of Glycerol to Acetol. Issue 6 (15th October 2021) - Basu, Sayantani
Abstract: The renewability of glycerol has made it an appealing medium for the processing of various compounds. Selective dehydration of glycerol to acetol is one of the promising glycerol valorizations. The performance and recent progress of those typical and most frequently mentioned catalysts for the synthesis of acetol from glycerol, including noble metals and transition‐based metals, are summarized in detail. A Cu‐based catalyst is identified as an appropriate catalyst for the synthesis of the glycerol dehydration route. In addition, advances in process development of several solid supports, the effects of catalyst preparation methods of suitable supports on catalytic activity, and the performance of catalysts' considering the catalytic conversion of glycerol to acetol are reviewed. Abstract : Acetol synthesis from renewable glycerol is highly important considering the rapidly increasing development of biodiesel. Several transition metal catalysts were tested for glycerol dehydration. The support acidity plays a key role in catalyst stability. The sol‐gel method for support preparation proved to be best suited due to the possible control of fine‐tuning of the acidity between metal and support.