Photocatalytic glycerol reforming on Pt, Au and Cu supported by reduced TiO2 under visible light irradiation

The commercial feasibility of biodiesel production highly depends on the effective utilization of byproduct glycerol through an environmentally friendly process like photocatalytic reforming. However, the process should be possible under visible light if solar energy is used. In this work, this process was studied over Pt, Au, Au-Cu, and Cu on reduced TiO2 (by NaBH4), which is more effective under visible light than pristine TiO2, for the first time in literature. Au, Au-Cu, and Cu were loaded by deposition precipitation with urea, while Pt was loaded by impregnation. Although the performance under UV-vis and white TiO2 is still higher, the visible light performance of Pt, Au-Cu, and Cu is much better over reduced TiO2 (91, 36, and 27 mmol/h. gcat respectively) than those over pristine TiO2 (9, 14 and 18 mmol/h. gcat respectively). This indicates that reduced TiO2 has the potential for the visible light reforming of glycerol. (c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.