ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

A review on liquid-phase heterogeneous dehydrogenation of formic acid: recent advances and perspectives

Likai Zhang, Wei Wu, Zhao Jiang, and Tao Fang

Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

E-mail: jiangzhao@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Abstract: With the increasing consumption of the fossil energy and the global warming, hydrogen has attracted extensive research due to the clean, renewable, and high-energy density properties. As a hydrogen carrier, formic acid is a main byproduct from many biomass processes and can be used in fuel cells directly. More importantly, formic acid is recyclable by the “formic acid-carbon dioxide cycle”, which does not produce any exhaust. Based on the previous reports, this study is focused on liquid-phase heterogeneous dehydrogenation of formic acid and summarizes the corresponding catalysts including mono-metallic, bi-metallic, and tri-metallic samples. Moreover, the comparison of catalytic performance about the dehydrogenation process is demonstrated considering the parameters of solvent, TOF (turnover frequency), and temperature. Furthermore, the morphology, composition, and structure of the catalysts, as well as the synthetic methods, are discussed and compared. Finally, some suggestions are proposed to design the corresponding catalysts and enhance the catalytic performance for formic acid dehydrogenation.

Keywords: Formic acid ; Hydrogen ; Dehydrogenation ; Catalysts 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0469-8

Chemical Papers 72 (9) 2121–2135 (2018)