Polyol hydrogenation to fuel components: Reaction kinetics study and catalyst development

The catalytic hydrogenation of a triol to mono alcohols was studied. Focus was on the investigation of reaction kinetics, mechanistic studies and catalyst characterization. The dehydration occurs over acid sites and the hydrogenation over noble metals with hydrogen. Because of this, bifunctional catalysts with Pt and heteropolyacids showed good performances for the hydrogenolysis, performed in liquid phase. The kinetic studies should determine the catalyst with the best performance and the optimum conditions for the reaction. In addition, the clarification of the reaction mechanism was an objective of this work. The aim of the catalyst characterization was to provide a fundamental understanding on how the catalyst works.