(514c) Bimetallic Ru-Re Catalysts for Hydrogenolysis of Polyols: Activity and Selectivity Studies

Hydrogenolysis of polyols is important in the context of utilization of renewable biomass feedstocks for conversion to fuels and chemicals. One of the challenges is to develop industrially useful catalysts and understand their activity/selectivity and kinetic behavior. In this presentation, synthesis, characterization, and catalytic performance of several ruthenium (Ru) and rhenium (Re) based supported bimetallic catalysts will be reported. Experimental results of catalysts prepared by co-precipitation method will be discussed. The catalytic performance of these bimetallic catalysts under neutral as well as elevated pH conditions for hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived glycerol to lower oxygenated compounds will be presented. A comparison of the bimetallic catalysts with monometallic catalysts with respect to selectivity for gaseous and liquid phase products will also be shown. The effect of the ratio of metal content and resulting changes in dispersion characteristics and metal particle size will be correlated with their catalytic performance for hydrogenolysis of glycerol. Hydrogenolysis of glycerol occurs with a series of consecutive and parallel reactions and hence, the selectivity to desired products also depends on the kinetics of different reaction steps. An approach for kinetic studies of such complex multi-step reaction network will be discussed.