Improvements in the performance of metal-modified zeolite catalysts for ethanol upgrading reactions

• Grant number: 21/12459-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: May 15, 2022
• End date: May 14, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Estevam Vitorio Spinacé
• Grantee: Tamara Siqueira Moraes
• Supervisor: Rajamani Pachayappan Gounder
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Purdue University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/15110-2 - Development of core-shell catalysts for ethanol steam reforming reaction, BP.PD

Abstract

The environmental issues and recent oscillation in oil prices have increased the attention to alternative routes and feedstocks to produce light olefins. The use of renewable feedstocks is encouraged by the growing awareness about the climate changes. The use of biomass for energy, fuels or chemicals is essentially carbon neutral. The quantity of carbon dioxide released during the conversion of biomass by combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion or fermentation corresponds to the amount fixed in it. Ethanol upgrading reactions can make a mixture of heavier branched alkane products. This mixture of products will have attractive value as a direct gasoline blendstock. Brazil and the US are the largest ethanol producers in the world and the ethanol upgrading could support transport sectors that will take time to be electrified, like heavy transport. The goal of this project is study ethanol upgrading reactions to make such product mixtures by exploring strategies to both extend the lifetimes of currently known acidic and bifunctional zeolite catalysts and to determine the improvements in performance of metal-modified zeolite catalysts. (AU)