Modified hydrotalcites as precursors for catalysts effective in the hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,2-propanediol Jir ˇı ´ Kolena 1 • Lenka Soukupova ´ 1 • Jaroslav Kocı ´k 1 • Jaromı ´r Lederer 1 Received: 8 June 2017 / Accepted: 6 August 2017 Ó Akade ´miai Kiado ´, Budapest, Hungary 2017 Abstract A series of hydrotalcite-like materials containing Al, Cu and one other bivalent metal, selected from the group Ni, Fe, Co and Zn, were prepared in the frame of this study. These hydrotalcite-like structures were used as precursors of the catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol. The hydrotalcites were converted to active forms of catalysts by calcination at a programmed temperature, increasing with the speed of 2 °C/min, up to 350 °C and reduction by hydrogen at 350 °C and 7 MPa. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, TGA, TPR, TPD, HRTEM, Hg porosity and N 2 physisorption. The catalyst containing Zn exhibited the highest activity and selectivity to 1,2-propanediol in the hydrogenolysis of glycerol despite the fact that it had lowest internal surface area from all the catalysts studied. Its activity was attributed to its specific pore volume distribution with highest fraction of wider macropores in the range between 1 and 10 lm, remarkably distinguishing this catalyst from all the other catalysts studied. Keywords Hydrotalcite Á Catalyst Á Hydrogenolysis Á Glycerol Á 1,2-propanediol Á Cu Introduction In recent years, characterized by increasing production of first generation of biofuels, glycerol, which is the main side product from the biodiesel production, became to be viewed not only as specialty chemical or the raw material for specialties production but also as a commodity product. Its increasing availability as well as its decreasing price have created conditions for its utilization as a substitute & Jir ˇı ´ Kolena jiri.kolena@unicre.cz 1 Unipetrol Center for Research and Education, 436 70 Litvinov-Za ´luz ˇı ´ 1, Czech Republic 123 Reac Kinet Mech Cat DOI 10.1007/s11144-017-1239-2