•A new way for the synthesis of ethanol fuel is introduced.•The impact of precipitants on the catalysts has been systematically investigated.•The samples are classified into two types, depending on the anion of precipitant.•Catalysts with high hydrogenation activity are obtained.Ethanol fuel has become a hot topic in the economic, political, environmental, and scientific areas. In this work, a new way for the synthesis of ethanol by hydrogenolysis of ethyl acetate is introduced and the impact of different precipitants on the ethyl acetate hydrogenolysis catalysts is systematically investigated by several considerations, including dispersion effects, the texture of the catalysts, and the copper phases in the surface layer of the reduced catalysts, etc. These precursors and catalysts are characterized by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, N2-adsoption, X-ray diffraction, transmission electronic microscope, H2 temperature-programmed reduction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is confirmed that the choice of precipitant is of great importance. The samples are classified into two types, depending on the anion of precipitant. Except the catalyst prepared by (NH4)2CO3, in which low copper loading is observed, type B catalysts (–CO32−) possess smaller copper particles and larger BET surface than that of type A catalysts (–OH), while the difference of catalysts in the same type is not obvious. Moreover, the coexistence of Cu+ and Cu0 is only detected in reduced type B catalysts. In general, ethyl acetate hydrogenolysis activity varies considerably with the precipitant, in the following order: Na2CO3 ≥ NaHCO3 > NaOH ≥ KOH > (NH4)2CO3.

In this research, dechlorination of reformate by the catalytic reforming process was investigated over ion-exchanged Y zeolites. Effects of cations, calcination, and reaction temperature on the removal of chloride compounds have been evaluated by performing dynamic tests. The adsorbents were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, NH3 temperature-programmed desorption, pyridine Fourier transform infrared (pyridine-FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray spectroscopy (XPS). Pyridine-FTIR showed that the type and amount of acidic sites present in zeolites have a significant influence on the dechlorination performance of the zeolites: Brønsted acid contributes to increasing the dechlorination capacity, while excessive Lewis acid has an adverse effect on the dechlorination performance. XPS confirmed that the chemical state of the cation in zeolites affects the dechlorination performance of modified zeolites and cerium in the form of Ce3+ is more favorble for dechlorination.