Due to its three hydroxyl groups, glycerol is a potential starting material for various high value fine chemicals such as dihydroxyacetone, tartronic acid and mesoxalic acid. The corresponding oxidation reactions are catalysed by various metals such as palladium, platinum, bismuth or gold. Nevertheless, the selectivity not only depends on the type of the active phase, but is also influenced by numerous parameters such as the metal particles size, the pore size of the support and the pH of the reaction medium. This review not only describes the recent developments in the field of research for new catalysts but also spotlights the role of the reaction conditions as well as the possible transport limitations in this tri-phasic system. Furthermore, an economical analysis of some processes is given, which shows that this is realistic to envision sustainable production of, e.g., dihydroxyacetone.

HAP solids were prepared with different Ca/P ratios and Na⁺cations before being characterized by XRD, XPS, LEIS, NMR, IR, and TGA. Their acid–base properties were then measured and discussed in relation to the characterization results.

1,3-Butadiene is traditionally produced as a byproduct of ethylene production from steam crackers. What is unusual is that the alternative production route for this important commodity chemical via ethanol was developed a long time ago, before World War II. Currently, there is a renewed interest in the production of butadiene from biomass due to the general trend to replace oil in the chemical industry. This review describes the recent progress in the production of butadiene from ethanol (ETB) by one or two-step process through intermediate production of acetaldehyde with an emphasis on the new catalytic systems. The different catalysts for butadiene production are compared in terms of structure-catalytic performance relationship, highlighting the key issues and requirements for future developments. The main difficulty in this process is that basic, acid and redox properties have to be combined in one single catalyst for the reactions of condensation, dehydration and hydrogenation. Magnesium and zirconium-based catalysts in the form of oxides or recently proposed silicates and zeolites promoted by metals are prevailing for butadiene synthesis with the highest selectivity of 70% at high ethanol conversion. The major challenge for further application of the process is to increase the butadiene productivity and to enhance the catalyst lifetime by suppression of coke deposition with preservation of active sites.

While the initial catalytic performances of silica-supported silicotungstic acid are high in the glycerol dehydration reaction, they rapidly decrease with time on stream and the acrolein yield quickly decreases.