Liquid-phase sorbitol hydrogenolysis over Co catalysts: Effect of external vs endogenous H2 on the product distribution

[Display omitted] •Sorbitol hydrogenolysis is carried out over cobalt aluminate based catalysts.•Production of valuable liquid products via retro-aldol condensation route.•Yield of monofunctionals reaches 70 % under inert atmosphere.•Pt-modified catalysts yield 44.7 % of higher oxygenated under H2 atmosphere.•Inert atmosphere generates products with lower O/C ratios than H2 atmosphere. Aqueous sorbitol hydrogenolysis (6.25 wt% aq. solution) in batch reactor was studied over bare and Pt-modified cobalt aluminate-based catalysts at distinct reaction atmospheres (N2 and H2 pressurized) focusing on the correlation between the physico-chemical properties of catalysts and the product distribution. It was found that over trimetallic xPt/CoAl catalysts (x = 0.3 and 1 wt%) operating at 240 °C and hydrogen pressure (60 bar) resulted in a yield of 27–35 molC % C5-6 hydrocarbons. Under inert atmosphere, the highest yield (57–70 molC %) was to monofunctional products with only one oxygen functionality, for all catalysts. A preferential retro-aldol condensation route is manifest. Post-reaction analyses showed less structural and chemical modification in the Pt-containing catalysts and a slight positive difference in those used under hydrogen pressure over those used under inert atmosphere.