Development of Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of Biomass Derived Products to Fuels
EMSL Project ID
46195
Abstract
The large increase in energy demand by emerging economies and the environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels has led to the focus on renewable energy sources such as biomass. Several thermochemical processes for the conversion of biomass to fuels or chemicals such as fast pyrolysis, liquefaction, gasification or hydrolysis, are being currently investigated 1. These processes share one thing in common, their products need upgrading, either through hydrodeoxygenation or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which requires the selective C-O bond cleavage. In order to design catalysts for the selective conversion of biomass to fuels, a fundamental understanding of the catalyst structure and its relation to the cleavage of C-O vs. C-C or C-H bonds is crucial. The goal of this research is to combine theoretical and experimental investigation of the catalyst structure (metal type, oxidation state and particle size) and its effect on the selectivity for C-O, C-C and C-H bond cleavage. The fundamental understanding of the catalyst structure effect on reaction mechanism will guide the rational synthesis of catalysts for the selective conversion of biomass to fuels.
The focus of the proposed work is the catalyst development for:
1. Fast pyrolysis bio-oil upgrading to bio-fuels
2. Lignocellulosic sugars conversion to bio-fuels by aqueous phase reforming/upgrading.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2011-10-01
End Date
2012-10-07
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Benavidez AD, L Kovarik, A Genc, N Agrawal, EM Larsson, TW Hansen, AM Karim, and AK Datye. 2012. "Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of the Origins of Anomalous Particle Size Distributions in Supported Metal Catalysts." ACS Catalysis 2(11):2349-2356. doi:10.1021/cs3005117
Karim AM, CJ Howard, BQ Roberts, L Kovarik, L Zhang, DL King, and Y Wang. 2012. "In Situ X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Studies on the Effect of pH on Pt Electronic Density during Aqueous Phase Reforming of Glycerol." ACS Catalysis 2(11):2387-2394. doi:10.1021/cs3005049
Sun J, AM Karim, H Zhang, L Kovarik, XS Li, A Hensley, JS McEwen, and Y Wang. 2013. "Carbon-Supported bimetallic Pd-Fe catalysts for vapor-phase hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol." Journal of Catalysis 306(1):47-57. doi:10. 1016/j. jcat. 2013. 05. 020
Wu T, D Childers, C Gomez, AM Karim, N Schweitzer, A Kropf, H Wang, TB Bolin, Y Hu, L Kovarik, R Meyer, and JT Miller. 2012. "General Method for Determination of the Surface Composition in Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysts from the L Edge X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Spectra." ACS Catalysis 2(11):2433-2443. doi:10. 1021/cs3004566