Highly selective hydrogenation of diesters to ethylene glycol and ethanol on aluminum-promoted CuAl/SiO2 catalysts

Sorbitol-derived carbon overlayers encapsulated Cu nanoparticles on SiO2: Stable and efficient for the continuous hydrogenation of ethylene carbonate

“…Of particular note, the Cu@C/SiO 2 catalyst in this case notably surpasses most of those Cu-based catalysts reported in the literature, in terms of the catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability. As clearly shown in Table S1 , most of the Cu-based catalysts in the literature exhibited 56.1–85.8% MeOH selectivity at a higher H 2 /EC molar ratio of 100–300 ( Chen et al., 2015 , 2019 , 2021b ; Deng et al., 2018 ; Zhou et al., 2018 ; Tian et al., 2018 ; Shu et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ), which will definitely bring huge waste of hydrogen resources. The S-1@Cu catalyst in our previous studies exhibited a higher MeOH yield of 92% at a H 2 /EC molar ratio of 100.…”

“…However, poor on-stream stability resulting from easy sintering of Cu nanoparticles owing to the low Tammann temperature of Cu nanoparticles still hinders the practical application. To enhance the catalytic performance and catalyst stability, modification of Cu-based catalysts with different additives or dopants (such as transition metals like Mg-Zr, Al, and Mo, and organic compounds like glucose and β-cyclodextrin) has been attempted ( Tian et al., 2018 ; Shu et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ; Song et al., 2021b ; Chen et al., 2019 ; Zhang et al., 2018 ). Nonetheless, the on-stream stability or the catalytic performance is still unsatisfactory.…”

Recent advances in the routes and catalysts for ethanol synthesis from syngas

“…Shu and co-workers synthesized a series of Al 2 O 3 -modified CuAl/SiO 2 catalysts via the hydrothermal method for the hydrogenation of DMO or ethylene carbonate (EC). 356 The characterization results demonstrated that Al formed the –Si–OH–Al bond over the SiO 2 support. It tuned the acidity of the support to promote cleavage of CO bonds, improve the dispersion of active Cu species and enhance H 2 activation.…”

An overview of mono‐ethylene glycol synthesis via CO coupling reaction: Catalysts, kinetics, and reaction pathways

“…Aluminum incorporation in the copper catalyst tuned the textural properties and surface acidity of the catalyst and reduced the copper crystallite size. [ 133 ] Song et al [ 134 ] studied the aluminum‐doped Cu/SiO 2 catalyst, to study the influence of acidic and basic sites. The catalyst doping with aluminum gives 100% DMO conversion and nearly 80% ethanol selectivity at 2.5 MPa pressure, 553 K temperature, and a H 2 /DMO ratio of 200 with a LHSV of 2 h −1 .…”