Efeito das propriedades físico-químicas de catalisadores contendo cobre na conversão seletiva do glicerol em acetol.

Abstract

Glycerol is a waste by-product obtained throughout the production of biodiesel by transesterification of vegetable oils. The glycerine prices are falling due to its lack of market. This change in market has attracted much interest in development of research related to the transformation of glycerol by catalytic processes. Thus, polymeric precursor method and wet impregnation route were applied to synthesize copper and aluminum-based catalyst in order to convert glycerol into acetol. The thesis is divided into 4 parts.The first part was studied the influence of copper content and the effect of component used as support in the catalytic performance. In the second part, it was observed the effect of the preparation method in structural, textural and morphological properties and consequently in the catalytic activity. In the third and fourth part, it was investigated how the acid-base properties affect in the catalytic performance during the transformation of glycerol. The samples were characterized by different techniques ICP-OES, TGA, DTA, XRD, SEM, TEM, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms and microcalorimetry of NH3 and CO2 adsorption. It was note that the glycerol conversion and the acetol selectivity increased with the Cu loading and with the improvement of the specific surface area. The results confirmed that the way of catalyst preparation influences its structure, texture, morphology and subsequently the catalytic performance. It was also observed that acidic or basic sites alone play a secondary role in the reaction; however, copper-based catalysts showed that copper metal provides an active site for the transformation of glycerol. Nevertheless, copper metal sites combined with an acid or base site can play a major role in the activity, selectivity and stability of samples. Furthermore, it is observed by XRD of the spent catalysts that the presence of the copper-modified alumina decreases catalyst sintering and consequently improve the catalytic proprieties.