Glycerol Selective Oxidation Under Acidic Conditions

Introduction Apart from the decline of fossil fuel energy resources, there is the added problem, recognised internationally, that fossil fuels are responsible for the greenhouse effect and global warming. Therefore, new alternative ways must be developed to satisfy not only energy needs and the production of chemicals but also for more benign effects on the environment. An approach already being developed is the use of biomass [1-4], for producing renewable raw materials and their conversion to high value chemicals and materials. Glycerol is a non-toxic compound with many uses; however, if a surplus exists in the future, more uses for the produced glycerol needs to be found. Recently the chemoselective catalytic conversion of glycerol was reviewed [5] highlighting the huge amount of useful compounds that can be produced through oxidation, hydrogenolysis, dehydration, pyrolysis, transesterification and esterification, polymerization and carbonylation. The importance of these transformations has been also highlighted by a recent report produced by the staff of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) [6]. In the present work our attention is focused on the selective catalytic oxidation of glycerol and the influence of the catalyst and the experimental conditions on the selectivity. In particular were focused on the opportunity to carry out the reaction in the absence of a base which would represent a big advantage from an industrial point of view.