Fundamentals and development of oxidation catalysts: the acrylic acid manufacture case

The oxidation catalysts are essential since the oxidation processes yield 25% of the foremost organic compounds and industrial intermediates. The review considers the fundamental concepts of catalytic oxidation, highlighting acrolein oxidation, the main product of which is acrylic acid. Besides presenting the evolution of catalysts based on mixed oxides of molybdenum and vanadium (Mo-V-O) during almost 70 years of study, it discusses how introducing other elements is essential to increase the catalytic activity and how the synthesis and reaction conditions affect the acrolein conversion and acrylic acid selectivity. The second part of the review presents new trends in acrylic acid formation, where acrolein formation occurs by glycerol dehydration. Due to the high glycerol surplus, several studies encourage its conversion into higher-added-value compounds. Furthermore, it illustrates how previous studies in the oxidation of acrolein aimed to develop glycerol oxidehydration, which is the conversion of glycerol into acrolein and its oxidation into acrylic acid in the same catalytic step.