Dehydrogenation of 2,3-Butanediol to 3-Hydroxybutanone Over CuZnAl Catalysts: Effect of Lithium Cation as Promoter

The dehydrogenation of 2,3-butanediol (BDO) to 3-hydroxybutanone (HBO) was studies over Li cation-doped CuZnAl catalysts. The catalyst samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, H -TPR and SEM techniques. The characterization results showing that doping with Li cation obviously modified the surface morphology of CuZnAl catalysts; decreased the reduction temperature of CuZnAl catalysts; and finally increased the amount of Cu active sites. The reaction results showing that, Li modified CuZnAl catalysts obviously enhanced the selectivity of the dehydrogenation of BDO to HBO by inhibiting the dehydration of BDO. The Li(2%)–Cu(44%)–Zn(38%)–Al(16%) exhibited the highest activity for dehydrogenation of BDO, with the conversion rate of BDO is 72.4% and the selectivity of HBO is 95.9% at 260 °C. This catalyst shows excellent stability for more than 100 h without significant deactivation.