Glycerol will be massively obtained as a byproduct of blooming biodiesel production, therefore, it has potential to serve as a main building block for future productions of higher-valued oxygenated chemicals. We will present our recent research on electrocatalytic processing of glycerol based on anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs).  A self-developed solution phase-based nanocapsule method was used to prepare Pt, Pd, Au and their bimetallic catalysts with small particle size of 2-5 nm. The electrooxidation of glycerol on these catalysts was studied in a half-cell linked to an on-line sample collection system, and the oxidation sequences have been revealed. The single AEMFC with non-PGM cathode and the self-prepared anode catalysts have demonstrated high output electrical power density. i.e. the AEMFC with 1.0 mg/cm2 FeCu-N4/C cathode catalyst and 1.0 mg/cm2 Pt/C anode catalyst has shown a peak power density over 140 mW/cm2 at 80oC and 2 atm backpressure of O2, which repents 30-40 times and 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (with high PtRu and Pt catalyst loadings of >8mg/cm2) and state-of-the-art biofuel cells (with enzymatic catalysts), respectively. It is interesting to find that the fuel cell operation voltage (anode overpotential) could regulate the oxidation product distributions. Pt/Pd/Au and bimetallic catalysts exhibited different catalytic activity and selectivity towards higher-valued chemicals, such as glyceric acid, glycolic acid, tartronic acid, and mesoxalic acid. The detailed mechanism study on electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol in high pH media will be presented.

Cogeneration of valuable chemicals and electricity from selective oxidation of glycerol based on anion exchange membrane fuel cells

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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