Kinetics of Glycerol Selective Oxidation Over PtBi/C Catalyst

Identifying new uses of glycerol, a waste of biodiesel production from transesterification of vegetable oils, is of great current interest. Towards this end, catalytic oxidation of glycerol is a promising approach. The challenge, however, is the relatively complex oxidation reaction network. Our research is focused on maximizing the yield of a specific product, high-value chemical dihydroxyacetone (DHA). The selective oxidation of glycerol to DHA was conducted in a semi-batch reactor (Parr) in the presence of bismuth-promoted platinum catalyst, supported on activated carbon (PtBi/C). The experimental data, collected over a wide range of process conditions, including temperature, pressure and concentration, were fitted with a kinetic model. The obtained kinetics were used to identify the optimum reaction conditions for maximum DHA yield in a fixed-bed reactor.