Highly Selective Production of Acrylic Acid from Glycerol via Two Steps Using Au/CeO₂ Catalysts

Using biomass resources for chemical production can provide more sustainable development in the chemical industry. In this work, acrylic acid was selectively produced from glycerol via two steps: Glycerol was efficiently converted to allyl alcohol by formic acid-mediated deoxydehydration (DODH), and then, the obtained allyl alcohol was oxidized without purification into acrylic acid in a basic aqueous solution. The Au/CeO₂ catalysts were used for the selective oxidation, and it worked well even in the presence of residual formic acid and impurities. A high yield of 87% was obtained for the production of acrylic acid from glycerol: 94.5% from glycerol to allyl alcohol and 92% from allyl alcohol to acrylic acid. The different shapes of CeO₂ such as rods, octahedra, and cubes were used as supports to deposit the Au active phase. Au deposited on octahedral CeO₂ presented the highest yield toward acrylic acid, and it was the most stable for the repeated oxidations. The effects of reaction time, temperature, O₂ pressure, and allyl alcohol concentration were evaluated to maximize the yield toward acrylic acid