Dehydration of Glycerol over Silicotungstic Acid-Supported Silica

A series of silicotungstic acid-supported silica, referred as H-SiW/Silica, with 10-40 wt% loading were prepared by impregnation method. All the prepared catalysts were systematically characterized by means of XRD, BET and NH3 -TPD measurements. The various physico-chemical studies of these supported catalysts suggest high dispersion of the active phase on the surface. Silica supported heteropoly acid materials are strong Bronsted acid catalyts with tunable acidity are found to be promising heterogeneous solid acid catalysts for vapour-phase dehydration of glycerol. Among the different loadings, the one with 30% heteropoly acid was found to show better activity in terms of glycerol conversion (99.0%) and acrolein selectivity (80.0%) at 275 degrees C.