The purpose of this work was to investigate biomass-derived ethanol
dehydrogenation into acetaldehyde using several mono- and multicomponent
(CuO, ZnO and Cr₂O₃)-containing catalysts supported on industrial size Al₂O₃
beads. The catalysts, prepared with either solution combustion or
incipient wetness method, were characterized by using various
physico-chemical methods, such as EDXA, SEM-EDXA, TEM, XRD, XPS,
pyridine adsorption desorption FTIR, and ζ-potential measurements. The
results revealed that the multicomponent catalysts exhibited superior
activity compared to the metal oxide catalysts containing only one metal
oxide. In addition, the most selective catalyst towards acetaldehyde
formation, with 50% selectivity at 55% conversion of ethanol at 300 °C
and WHSV 1 h⁻¹ was CuOCr₂O₃/Al₂O₃
prepared by using the solution combustion method, indicating that this
inexpensive and rapid catalyst preparation method is promising for other
applications.