Catalytic performance of Pd–Ni bimetallic catalyst for glycerol hydrogenolysis

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Catalytic conversion of glycerol from biodiesel production to value-added chemicals and fuels is actually of great interest for industrial chemical research. Bimetallic catalysts are confirmed superior to monometallic catalysts in terms of catalytic activity and selectivity for glycerol hydrogenolysis. Accordingly, a series of Pd–M (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) bimetallic catalysts were prepared in this work via coprecipitation to investigate the promoting effect of Pd. The relationship between the catalytic performance and metal-support interaction was also discussed. Through the catalyst screening, Pd–Ni bimetallic catalyst exhibited moderate activity and the highest selectivity towards ethylene glycol. At 493 K and hydrogen pressure of 6.0 MPa, the glycerol conversion and selectivity of ethylene glycol reached 89% and 22% respectively. XRD and TEM patterns showed that the Pd nanoparticles with an average size of ∼4 nm were uniformly dispersed in the supports. H2-TPR revealed that the reduction temperatures of metal oxides were significantly decreased by the introduction of Pd component. XPS curves indicated that unique performance of the Pd–Ni bimetallic catalyst might be attributed to the formation of Pd–Ni alloy. And the required metal-support interaction was assumed responsible for the cleavage of C–C bond and generation of ethylene glycol. In the end, hydrogenolysis reactions for the main products of glycerol conversion were carried out over Pd–Ni catalyst to explore the possible reaction pathways for glycerol hydrogenolysis.