Aqueous hydrogenolysis of glycerol over Ni–Ce/AC catalyst: Promoting effect of Ce on catalytic performance Original Research Article

The aqueous hydrogenolysis of glycerol was performed over Ni–Ce/AC catalyst. The addition of cerium showed a remarkable promoting effect on the catalytic performance compared with other metals including copper, tin, zinc, aluminum, iron and cobalt. For example, 90.4% of glycerol conversion could be achieved at 473 K under 5 MPa of H2 with 6 h. The Ni–Ce/AC catalysts were characterized by N2 physisorption, XRD, TEM, NH3-TPD and H2-TPR. The results showed that the addition of cerium to the Ni/AC catalyst greatly changed the reductive behavior.