Tailoring Properties and Performance of Chromium Oxide based Catalysts for Sorbitol Hydrogenolysis

The study highlights the synthesis of Chromium Oxide Silica (CrSi) and Chromium Oxide Alumina (CrAl) catalysts using sol-gel and impregnation methods, respectively, and their evaluation in sorbitol hydrogenolysis. Characterization techniques such as nitrogen physisorption, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, and TGA analyses were employed. CrSi exhibited a higher surface area (132.47 cm³/g) compared to CrAl (120.71 cm³/g), correlating with its superior catalytic performance. FTIR identified crucial functional groups, while SEM images showed a consistent porous structure for CrSi. TGA indicated thermal stability for both catalysts. Under optimized conditions, CrSi demonstrated superior performance, achieving a sorbitol conversion rate of 70.08% with notable selectivity towards ethylene glycol (33.95%) and propylene glycol (45.66%). In contrast, CrAl displayed a slightly lower conversion rate of 67.59%, with selectivity towards ethylene glycol (20.21%) and propylene glycol (37.56%), highlighting CrSi superior efficiency in sorbitol hydrogenolysis. This study emphasizes the significance of carefully choosing and optimizing catalysts for improving process efficiency and selectivity in sorbitol hydrogenolysis for industrial applications.