BACKGROUND: Unlike Pt andAu, Ag has recently been reported to be an active catalyst for the synthesis of glycolic acid from the liquid phase oxidation of glycerol (GLY). In order to provide comparative information about the kinetics of this reaction using Pt, Au or Ag, a kinetic model was derived for each catalyst (Ag/, Pt/ and Au/Al2O3), using the experimental results obtained at different temperatures. RESULTS: A power-law kinetic model was proposed for each catalyst, which included the Khang-Levenspiel model to evaluate potential catalyst deactivation. All three kinetic models predicted well the experimental concentrations. Pt/and Au/Al2O3 showed higher kinetic rate constants, the highest being that of the production of glyceric acid. The lower the metal particle size, the higher the kinetic rate constant of the production of glyceric acid was. Deactivation parameters played an important role in the model of Pt/Al2O3, so that Au/ and Ag/Al2O3 seemed to be more resistant to deactivation. CONCLUSIONS: This work reports the first kinetic model for the oxidation of GLY using an Ag-based catalyst. It showed a noticeable kinetic rate constant for the production of glycolic acid. The activation energies obtainedwere in the range 48-97 kJ mol(-1). (C) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry