Mixed metal oxide catalysts supported on H-Beta for hydrogenolysis of glycerol into 1,3-propanediol

61 Pages·2017·1.24 MB·English

by  Amit Kant

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Masters Theses Student Theses and Dissertations
Summer 2016
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Amit Kant
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1,3-propanediol" (2016). Masters Theses. 7556.
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i

MIXED METAL OXIDE CATALYSTS SUPPORTED ON H-BETA FOR
HYDROGENOLYSIS OF GLYCEROL INTO 1,3-PROPANEDIOL

by

AMIT KANT

A THESIS

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the

MISSOURI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

2016

Approved by

Dr. Ali Rownaghi, Advisor
Dr. Fateme Rezaei
Dr. Joseph Smith
ii

 2016
Amit Kant
All Rights Reserved
iii

ABSTRACT
Bioglycerol is the by-product which is produced largely from the microbial
fermentation, hydrogenolysis of glucose in the mixture of polyols, fatty ester, soap
manufacturing process and fatty acid production. Hydrogenolysis of glycerol is one of the
most promising ways to convert glycerol and many work has been done towards 1,3-
propanediol, 1,2-propanediol and 1-propanol using various metals and mixed-metal
oxides such as W, Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd, Cu, Ni and different zeolites have been extensively
used as the active components.
It has been well documented that the presence of Bronsted acid sites leads to the
formation of acrolein, while Lewis acid sites, and even basic catalysts, gives rise to
hydroxyacetone as the main product. However, there is little research on the use of H-
Beta zeolite as the catalyst and metals support for hydrogenolysis of glycerol.
The investigations conducted in this study consist of the development of active
catalysts as well as optimize process conditions, in the dehydration of glycerol to value-
added chemicals. The use of different H pressures above 600-1200 psi, reaction
2
temperatures 180-220 oC, reaction times (5-10 h), and the optimum catalyst/reactant
ratios leads to significant impact of the liquid-phase reactions and the formation of
products.
Various bi-metallic catalysts based on W, Cu, Ni, Sr, Zr and Zn are studied with
regard to the dependence of activity and stability in hydrogenolysis of glycerol with H-
Beta zeolite support. All prepared catalysts are characterized using various analysis
techniques such as N sorption, XRD, FTIR, and NH -TPD and the obtained organic
2 3
products are then further analyzed with the help of GC-FID and GC-MS.
iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Ali Rownaghi, for the chance he gave me to
work on this very interesting theme, his guidance and help through the different steps to
success my research in the field of catalysis and reaction engineering (CRE) at Missouri
University of Science and Technology, Rolla. His support plays a very vital role in
reaching one of the goals of my career. I would also like to thank Dr. Fateme Rezaei for
her scientific support and the friendly discussions and also to allow me to use
characterization instruments and other facilities in her lab. Her guidance played a very
vital role for moving my project smoothly towards the end.
I would also like to thank my committee member, Dr. Joseph Smith, for their
interest and assistance in my research.
Furthermore, I am grateful to the whole CRE team for the great team work,
atmosphere during my experimental work and especially to Dr. Kapila, chemistry
department, who allowed me to use their lab instruments in their labs; Xin (John) Li for
sharing his scientific experience as well as mentoring my technical work.
I wish to give special thanks to my friends (Sai Chandra Teja Boravelli and Paul
Praveen Nakka) for helping me in my difficult times, for their emotional support,
entertainment, for always being with me and caring they provided.
Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my parents and my sisters who were
supportive to me in all the times. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents and my
sisters, Poonam, Neelam and Sapna Kant.
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................ vii
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii
SECTION
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1. RENEWABLE ENERGY SCENARIO ............................................................. 1
1.2. BIODIESEL PRODUCTION (BIODIESEL MARKET) .................................. 2
1.3. GLYCEROL AS A BY-PRODUCT AND ITS PROPERTIES ......................... 4
1.4. APPLICATION OF GLYCEROL ..................................................................... 6
1.5. UTILIZATION OF GLYCEROL THROUGH VARIOUS PROCESSES ........ 7
2. OBJECTIVE ............................................................................................................. 11
3. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 12
3.1. HYDROGENOLYSIS OF GLYCEROL ......................................................... 12
3.2. GLYCEROL CONVERSION TO 1-PROPANOL .......................................... 13
3.3. GLYCEROL CONVERSION TO 1,2-PROPANEDIOL................................. 14
3.4. GLYCEROL CONVERSION TO 1,3-PROPANEDIOL................................. 15
3.5. GLYCEROL HYDROGENOLYSIS USING ZEOLITES .............................. 17
3.6. GLYCEROL CONOVERSION USING MIXED METAL OXIDES ............. 19
4. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ..................................................................................... 21
4.1. CHEMICALS ................................................................................................... 21
vi

4.2. CATALYSTS PREPARATION ...................................................................... 21
4.3. REACTOR SET-UP AND CATALYST EXPERIMENT ............................... 23
5. CATALYST CHARACTERIZATIONS ................................................................. 26
5.1. SURFACE AREA, PORE VOLUME AND PORE SIZE................................ 26
5.2. POWDER X-RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD) .................................................... 26
5.3. AMMONIA-TEMPERATURE PROGRAMMED
DESORPTION (NH -TPD).............................................................................. 26
3
5.4. FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FTIR) ............... 27
6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ............................................................................ 28
6.1. CATALYST CHARACTERIZATIONS.......................................................... 28
6.1.1 Surface Area, Pore Volume and Pore Size .............................................. 28
6.1.2 Powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD) ............................................................ 31
6.1.3 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) ................................... 32
6.1.4 Ammonia-Temperature Programmed Desorption (NH -TPD) ............... 33
3
6.2. GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY ANALYSIS ..................................................... 35
7. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 44
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 45
VITA ................................................................................................................................ 52
vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1.1 Energy consumption outlook to 2050 by Shell..............................................................2
1.2 Biofuels consumption outlook to 2050 by Shell............................................................3
1.3 Glycerol market (general uses of glycerol)....................................................................6
1.4 Glycerol conversion products from various mechanisms............................................10
3.1 Glycerol hydrogenolysis into 1,2-PDO (a) Montassier mechanism (b) Dasari
mechanism...................................................................................................................13

3.2 Reaction mechanism for glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,3-Propanediol........................16
4.1 Temperature profile for catalyst drying and calcination..............................................22
4.2 Process Flow Diagram of reactor set-up…………….….............................................24
4.3 Experimental set-up of reactor...............................…..................................................25
6.1 N adsorption-desorption isotherms of a) pure H-Beta zeolites and modified
2
H-Beta zeolites with various metals b) H-Beta zeolites with different wt%
loading of Zr metal.......................................................................................................30

6.2 XRD patterns of a) pure H-Beta zeolites and modified H-Beta zeolites with
various metals b) H-Beta zeolites with different wt% loading of Zr metal.................32

6.3 FT-IR patterns of a) pure H-Beta zeolites and modified H-Beta zeolites with
various metals b) H-Beta zeolites with different wt% loading of Zr metal.................34

6.4 NH -TPD patterns of a) pure H-Beta zeolites and modified H-Beta zeolites with
3
various metals b) H-Beta zeolites with different wt% loading of Zr metal.................36
viii

LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1.1 General properties glycerol............................................................................................5
3.1 Vapor Phase hydrogenolysis of glycerol over mixed metals catalysts........................20
6.1 Textural properties of developed catalysts..................................................................29
6.2 Calibration data from GC-FID for glycerol standards.................................................37
6.3 GC-FID results for products conversion and selectivity……......................................39
1

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. RENEWABLE ENERGY SCENARIO
The as usual concern of people regarding the energy demand is still persisting as
the current development of the energy sources is not sufficient to meet the drastically
growing demand of it. Still thanks to people who are putting their efforts continuously to
bring out the solution in response of the growing industrial, commercial and residential
demands. The overuse of the natural resources like fossil fuels has led to the depletion of
the existing possibilities on which hopes of the people were relying [1]. Many countries,
including both developed and undeveloped, even after the multifold production of energy
sources, are not able to indemnify for the gap created between supply and demand [2].
Other problems include deterioration of the climate due to the excessive use of the fossil
resources such as coal. These causes to release various gases in the atmosphere such as
SO , NO , C H , soot, ash, droplets of tar and other greenhouse gases like CO [3]. As
2 x x x 2
per the world energy consumption report by Shell, even if it were possible to maintain the
share of fossil fuels with the growing demand, the CO emission would remain the
2
threaten to human well-being. The concentration of it in long term is expected to go
beyond 550 ppm which started with 280 ppm in pre-industrial times [4]. If this is not
controlled in the future then it will surely lead to some major natural issues like floods
and acid rain [5, 6].
Also, the limited availability and excessive use of fossil resources has led to the
drastic decrease in the production oil in last few decades. Again as shown in Figure 1.1,
as per the report of world energy consumption by Shell, the demand of energy is going to
be doubled by 2050 [4]. Since, it is now understood that the current situation is becoming