Copper induced highly selective catalytic conversion of glycerol to hydrogen and lactate over CuRu catalyst

Abstract

The production of glycerol (GLY) is increasing with the growing emphasis on biodiesel over fossil fuels, as GLY constitutes ∼10 wt% of biodiesel byproducts. Although GLY is a valuable feedstock for the synthesis of several value-added products, such as lactic acid (LA) and hydrogen gas (H2), processes enabling the simultaneous production of both H2 and LA/lactate in high yield and selectivity from GLY remain scarce. Herein, an efficient CuRu/CeO2 catalyst is reported for the simultaneous production of sodium lactate (SL) with 95% selectivity and H2 from GLY in an aqueous medium under mild conditions. Reactions performed over CuRu/CeO2 catalysts with varying Cu/Ru ratios revealed the pronounced role of Cu in achieving high SL selectivity by suppressing C-C bond cleavage. Moreover, the CuRu/CeO2 catalyst demonstrated high robustness with productivity of 18.9 LH2/gRu/h and 626 mmol SL/gRu/h under bulk conditions and 13.9 LH2/gRu/h and 500 mmol SL/gRu/h under reusability conditions. © 2026 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.