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The polymer can be effectively used as the supports for catalyst preparation. The main disadvantage of the polymer support is the absence of the acid-base sites on its surface. The modification of the polymeric support is one of the ways to solve this problem. In the current work, the modification of the surface of the hypercrosslinked polystyrene was carried out to apply the silicon oxide and provide the acid sites on the polymer. The effect of the silica deposition method and silica precursor was studied by the physics chemical analysis. The precipitation of the silica in subcritical water was found to provide the higher specific surface area of the resulting support (over 700 m2/g) in comparison with the wet-impregnation method. The use of ethoxysilanes, particularly 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, as a silica precursor was found to lead to the full deposition of Si. The synthesized modified support was used for the preparation of the catalyst for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Lewis acid sites on the catalyst support facilitate the CO adsorption and enhance the production of hydrocarbons via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The use of the catalysts on the silica-modified support showed a three-fold increase in CO conversion with an increase in the selectivity towards the oxygenates.

Biochar is a carbonaceous product from biomass obtained by heat treatment of organic materials such as wood, by-products of wood processing, and plant residues. Biochar can be obtained as a result of thermal processing, which can be divided into three main processes: pyrolysis, torrefaction, and hydrothermal carbonization. The resulting biochar has different composition, structural and textural properties, strength, etc. Despite of numerous studies, the investigation of biochar production and properties are of great interest. Modification of carbonaceous products obtained from biomass is one of the actual tasks to produce the tailor-made materials. This article presents a comparison of the characteristics of biochar obtained by three methods: pyrolysis, torrefaction, and hydrothermal carbonization. Another task was the evaluation of the modifier addition to biochar to form materials with higher surface area and abrasion resistance for catalyst applications. The biochar obtained by the torrefaction from different lignocellulosic feedstock (hydrolysed and non-hydrolysed pine and birch sawdust) was found to have the highest carbonization degree, and the highest specific surface area. It was found that the additional modification of biochar with silica provides an increase its abrasion resistance, and higher porosity that allows the material obtained to be used for different purposes (as filler and binder for the construction materials, catalyst support etc.).

Biomass can be considered as a potential resource for the production of renewable fuels. Lignocellulose biomass is a widely available, renewable, biodegradable, and biocompatible resource that can potentially reduce the dependence of modern society on fossil resources. It is a potential feedstock for the production of heat, electricity, fuel, chemicals, and other bioderived products. Considerable attention of researchers is directed to the conversion of biomass into bioenergy through chemical, biochemical, or thermochemical processes. Hydrolysis is considered to be one of the important steps to convert biomass into valuable chemicals. During hydrolysis, liquid rich in sugars with a certain amount of dissolved lignin, usually called hydrolysate, is formed. In this paper, the influence of the catalyst type, temperature, catalyst concentration, and solvent type on the conversion and composition of hydrolysate was studied. The highest yield of hydrolysis products (hexoses and pentoses) reached up to 80 wt. % at a temperature of 220 °C in water medium in the presence of 1.5 wt. % of sulfuric acid.

The processing of lignocellulose wastes is one of the urgent tasks in modern society. These wastes can be effectively used for the production of heat, electricity, fuels, and valuable chemicals. Catalytic pyrolysis can be considered the most effective way to convert waste into valuable products. In this work, the investigation of the pyrolysis process of the birch and pine sawdust was carried out in the presence of a zeolite-based catalyst. The synthesised zeolite-based catalyst is characterised by high porosity (the specific surface area of 350 m2/g) and acidity (0.34 mmol/g). The use of the zeolite-based catalyst increases the yield of the gaseous and liquid products of pyrolysis by ca. 5 % in comparison with the non-catalytic one. Despite this increase seems to be negligible, the composition of the products was changed sufficiently because of the higher degree of feedstock decomposition. The addition of pure zeolite into the pyrolysis zone led to an increase in furanes and phenols yield for 3 times while the addition of Fe-ZSM-5 catalyst increased twice the yield of acids/esters, and hydrocarbons.

Flax shive is a highly lignified nonfibrous plant parts obtained from the scutching of straw flax to produce fibers. It is one of the multi-tonnage agricultural wastes. The use of the flax shive as a source for the valuable products is a promising way to solve the problem of the waste processing. This work is devoted to the study of composition and properties of the products of slow and fast pyrolysis of the flax shive. It was found that the slow pyrolysis results in a higher degree of the feedstock decomposition as well as in a higher yield of valuable gases and liquids. The gaseous product yield was found to be over 35 wt. % for the slow pyrolysis, and about 25 wt. % for the fast pyrolysis. For the gaseous products, methane concentration was found to be twice lower for the fast pyrolysis in comparison with the slow one. This decreases the calorific value of gases and leads to the low feasibility of the process. Interestingly, the fast pyrolysis resulted only 20 wt. % of liquids, while for the slow one, a twice increase (ca. 40 wt. %) of liquid yield was obtained. The liquid obtained in a fast mode contained the higher number of carboxylic acids and furanes, while the product obtained in a slow pyrolysis was characterised by the higher concentration of phenols, aldehydes and hydrocarbons increasing its further application. The solid residue obtained by the slow pyrolysis was found to have a higher porosity in comparison with the sample obtained by the fast mode. As the solid residue can be used as an adsorbent, the porosity is a critical parameter to choice the proper mode for flax shive thermal processing.

The polymer can be effectively used as the supports for catalyst preparation. The main disadvantage of the polymer support is the absence of the acid-base sites on its surface. The modification of the polymeric support is one of the ways to solve this problem. In the current work, the modification of the surface of the hypercrosslinked polystyrene was carried out to apply the silicon oxide and provide the acid sites on the polymer. The effect of the silica deposition method and silica precursor was studied by the physics chemical analysis. The precipitation of the silica in subcritical water was found to provide the higher specific surface area of the resulting support (over 700 m² /g) in comparison with the wet-impregnation method. The use of ethoxysilanes, particularly 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, as a silica precursor was found to lead to the full deposition of Si. The synthesized modified support was used for the preparation of the catalyst for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Lewis acid sites on the catalyst support facilitate the CO adsorption and enhance the production of hydrocarbons via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The use of the catalysts on the silica-modified support showed a three-fold increase in CO conversion with an increase in the selectivity towards the oxygenates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar is a carbonaceous product from biomass obtained by heat treatment of organic materials such as wood, by-products of wood processing, and plant residues. Biochar can be obtained as a result of thermal processing, which can be divided into three main processes: pyrolysis, torrefaction, and hydrothermal carbonization. The resulting biochar has different composition, structural and textural properties, strength, etc. Despite of numerous studies, the investigation of biochar production and properties are of great interest. Modification of carbonaceous products obtained from biomass is one of the actual tasks to produce the tailor-made materials. This article presents a comparison of the characteristics of biochar obtained by three methods: pyrolysis, torrefaction, and hydrothermal carbonization. Another task was the evaluation of the modifier addition to biochar to form materials with higher surface area and abrasion resistance for catalyst applications. The biochar obtained by the torrefaction from different lignocellulosic feedstock (hydrolysed and non-hydrolysed pine and birch sawdust) was found to have the highest carbonization degree, and the highest specific surface area. It was found that the additional modification of biochar with silica provides an increase its abrasion resistance, and higher porosity that allows the material obtained to be used for different purposes (as filler and binder for the construction materials, catalyst support etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass can be considered as a potential resource for the production of renewable fuels. Lignocellulose biomass is a widely available, renewable, biodegradable, and biocompatible resource that can potentially reduce the dependence of modern society on fossil resources. It is a potential feedstock for the production of heat, electricity, fuel, chemicals, and other bioderived products. Considerable attention of researchers is directed to the conversion of biomass into bioenergy through chemical, biochemical, or thermochemical processes. Hydrolysis is considered to be one of the important steps to convert biomass into valuable chemicals. During hydrolysis, liquid rich in sugars with a certain amount of dissolved lignin, usually called hydrolysate, is formed. In this paper, the influence of the catalyst type, temperature, catalyst concentration, and solvent type on the conversion and composition of hydrolysate was studied. The highest yield of hydrolysis products (hexoses and pentoses) reached up to 80 wt. % at a temperature of 220 °C in water medium in the presence of 1.5 wt. % of sulfuric acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of biofuel upgrading processes in the existing technologies of crude oil refining is considered to be one of the promising directions for the production of liquid motor fuels. In this work, the co-processing of bio-oil obtained from biomass waste and heavy oil fractions in the supercritical solvent was studied. The bio-oil was obtained by the slow pyrolysis of birch and pine wood sawdust in the presence of a Fe-containing zeolite-based catalyst. The influence of the catalyst on the yield and composition of liquid products was studied. To find the optimal reaction conditions, the co-processing of the model compounds (anisole – eicosane – dibenzothiophene) was carried out by varying the solvent, reaction temperature, and the initial nitrogen pressure. Full removal of oxygen and sulfur as well as a decrease in the concentration of heavy and polyaromatic compounds from the feedstock were observed under the following process parameters: solvent – propanol-2, reaction temperature – 260 °C, initial nitrogen pressure – 1.5 MPa, total pressure – 7.2 MPa.

Nowadays, the processes for the conversion of biomass to fuels are of great interest. One of the widely studied reactions is the deoxygenation of oxygen-containing compounds. The process is performed in two main directions: in hydrogen presence (namely hydrodeoxygenation) and using supercritical fluids as a hydrogen source. The modern problem in deoxygenation is catalyst stability and selectivity. Thus, the development of novel catalytic systems is an urgent task. Schungite is a natural carbon-reach material that has high sorption ability and excellent reductive properties. These properties make this material suitable for its use as catalyst support. In this work, the study of the effectiveness of novel schungite-based catalysts in supercritical deoxygenation of fatty acids and bio-oil model compounds is presented. The catalyst synthesis was performed by the recently developed method of Ni hydrothermal deposition on the schungite surface. The synthesized catalysts were tested in the deoxygenation of stearic acid and guayacol in the supercritical hexane. The experimental results showed that the developed catalysts allow 100 % conversion of the substrate to be reached in both processes providing over 90 wt.% of gasoline and diesel-range hydrocarbon yield.

Liquid fuel production from biomass-derived molecules has received great attention due to the diminished fossil fuel reserves, growing energy demand, and the necessity of CO2 emission reduction. The deoxygenation of oils and fatty acids is a promising process to obtain "green" diesel. Herein, we report the results of the study of the deoxygenation of stearic acid to alkanes as a model reaction. Series of Ni-supported on schungite were obtained by precipitation in subcritical water (hydrothermal deposition) and for comparison via wetness impregnation followed, in both cases, by calcination at 500 °C and a reduction in H2 at 300 °C. The catalyst obtained via hydrothermal synthesis showed a three-fold higher specific surface area with a four-fold higher active phase dispersion compared to the catalysts synthesized via conventional impregnation. The catalysts were tested in stearic acid deoxygenation in supercritical n-hexane as the solvent. Under optimized process conditions (temperature of 280 °C, hydrogen partial pressure of 1.5 MPa, and 13.2 mol of stearic acid per mol of Ni), a close to 100% yield of C10–C18 alkanes, containing over 70 wt.% of targeted n-heptadecane, was obtained after 60 min of reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, there has been an active interaction of geological and mathematical sciences. One of the main directions of the introduction of mathematics into geology and in the practice of geological exploration is the mathematical modeling of geological objects. In the Kirovsk-Apatit district of the Murmansk region, the Kirov branch of Apatit, JSC, is developing six fields: Plateau Rasvumchorr, Kukisvumchorrskoe, Yuksporskoe, Apatity circus, Koashviskoye and Nyurpakhskoye. At the moment, Ventyx MineScape (Australia) is actively being implemented in Apatit JSC. This is a set of integrated modules used in mining operations at enterprises conducting open / underground mining of ore deposits. Also at the Mining Institute of the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Apatity, Murmansk region), the computer modeling system MINEFRAME has been created and constantly improved. Today, it is an integrated software package designed to solve a wide range of geological, mining and technological problems. As example of the Apatite Circus deposit, the prospects of joint use of mining and geological information systems MineScape and MINEFRAME for mathematical modeling of geological objects and a geostatistical description of the spatial distribution of the mineral are shown. The article discusses the results of a geostatistical study of the distribution of the useful component (P2O5) within the ore body bounded by the framework model of balance ores from the Apatite circus deposit, and also two block models are constructed. The blocks of the first model were filled using the method of inverse distances, the blocks of the second - by the usual kriging method. At the end of the article, to select the most suitable method for the field, there has been made a comparison between the average contents obtained by using the methods of conventional kriging and inverse distances.

The article presents the results on the thermal processing of the samples of flax production - flax shive and the cellulose residue of flax shive. Experimental data on the conversion of selected samples of flax production waste obtained on a laboratory installation of slow pyrolysis in a temperature range of 500-750 ? are presented. The composition of gaseous pyrolysis products has been studied in detail and the main content of methane, hydrogen, and carbon oxides in the course of the process have been determined. Data on the composition of liquid products of pyrolysis of selected samples of plant biomass using the method of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry are presented. As part of the work, elemental analysis of samples of solid carbon-containing residues for the studied samples of flax and cellulose residue was carried out, and an analysis was carried out by the method of low-temperature adsorption of nitrogen.

Nowadays, the processes aimed at the deep conversion of heavy oil are of great interest. Polyaromatic and sulfur-containing compounds (such as anthracene and dibenzothiophene) are one of the main components of heavy oil fractions which are hard to process. Catalytic hydrotreatment of heavy petroleum fractions (vacuum gas oil, light gas oil, etc.) is widely used to improve the quality of the resulting products. As the hydrotreatment of oil fractions often requires the use of harsh process conditions and consumes a high amount of molecular hydrogen, the researchers’ interest is focused on the development of novel approaches including the use of supercritical fluids. In this work, the influence of solvent in the supercritical state on the conversion and product composition of cracking and desulfurization of polyaromatic and sulfur-containing compounds is described. The experimental results showed that the use of a supercritical solvent mixture composed of n-hexane and methanol allows the polyaromatic compounds to be effectively converted into monoaromatics providing a high conversion degree (up to 95 %).

Nowadays, the production of liquid motor fuel faces such problems as compliance of the final product with existing international standards (for the content of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen) as well as the improvement of the feasibility of the existing technologies for fuel production. Biomass is one of the most perspective and widely spread sources for energy. The existing techniques for biomass conversion into the fuels are mainly based on the hydroprocessing and can be successfully applied in petroleum industry. The integrated processes involving both biofuel and oil conversion are of great interest. In this work, the novel hydrogen-free approach for co-processing of heavy oil fractions and bio-oil is described. The use of supercritical solvent mixture, which includes propanol-2 and n-hexane, allows full substrate conversion to be achieved for maximum 3 h. As a result, the hydrocarbon mixture consisting of aromatic and cyclic compounds was obtained with 99 wt. % yield.

In this report, three technological modes for methanol-to-gasoline reaction in the presence of H-ZSM-5 catalyst are compared: (i) direct methanol transformation to hydrocarbons; (ii) two-step (methanol-dimethyl ether-hydrocarbons); and (iii) cascade pathway. Light hydrocarbon gases (methane, ethylene, propylene, and isobutene) and liquid aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene, cresol, durol, naphthalene, methylnaphthalene, ethyl naphthalene, isopropyl naphthalene, methyl isopropyl naphthalene, etc.) were found to be the main reaction products. The experimental results showed that the classical two-step methanol to gasoline (MTG) process nowadays remains the most effective for gasoline-range hydrocarbons production, while one-step and cascade schemes require further investigation and the development of reactor systems as well as the operating conditions. The product distribution of MTG synthesis after 120 h on stream in the case of two-step mode was found to be the following: liquid C6–C8 hydrocarbons – 23%; C1–C5 gaseous products – 65%; heavy C9–C12 hydrocarbons – 10%.

In this paper, the commercial 5%Pd/C and 5%Pt/C catalysts and synthesized 5%Pt/MN-270 and 5%Pd/MN-270 were used in the hydrogenolysis of lignocellulosic material (softwood sawdust) to obtain liquid fuels in the form of hydrocarbons. As lignin has a very complex structure, anisole was used as a model compound. It was found that the use Pt-containing catalysts based on hypercrosslinked polystyrene in both processes of anisole and lignin-containing feedstock conversion allowed obtaining the highest yield of oxygen-free hydrocarbons (up to 96 wt. %). Besides, the polymer based catalysts showed high stability in hydrogenolysis process in comparison with the commercial carbon based catalysts.

In this work, catalyst consisting of Ru deposited on hypercrosslinked polystyrene (HPS) was investigated in the process of hydrogenolysis of lignin isolated from different substrates. For sawdust, the maximum yield of the desired products was achieved with the use of acetic acid lignin, sunflower husk, and buckwheat husk when using the Klasson lignin. Analysis of hydrogenolysis products showed that the main substances formed in the process are benzene, phenol and their derivatives. In the process of hydrogenolysis of lignins at a pressure of 1 MPa hydrocarbons containing up to 9 hydrocarbon atoms were mainly obtained (78 %). Such hydrocarbons can be used as motor fuels. To increase the yield of hydrocarbons C9+, experiments were conducted to vary the temperature and pressure. The optimal reaction conditions allowing obtaining the highest yield of the target products (C9+ hydrocarbons) were found to be the following: the processing time 1 h, the temperature of 300 °C, the partial pressure of hydrogen of 4 MPa, the stirring speed of 1500 rpm. The 3 % Ru/HPS catalyst showed high stability during hydrogenolysis (up to 5 consecutive cycles without regeneration).

Deoxygenation process is considered to be a promising way to produce the second generation of biodiesel. The main drawbacks of this process are high temperature, high reaction time and the necessity in hydrogen presence aimed at the formation of saturated diesel-range hydrocarbons. In order to solve the deoxygenation problems, the supercritical fluids can be used as a solvent. The reaction performance in the medium of supercritical fluids allows sufficiently reducing the reaction duration as well as avoiding the use of molecular hydrogen. In the current work, stearic acid deoxygenation in the medium of supercritical hexane in the presence of Ni-Co bimetallic catalyst supported on hypercrosslinked polystyrene by hydrothermal method was studied. The influence of metal loading was estimated. The Ni-Co/HPS catalyst containing 10 wt. % Ni and 10 wt. % Co was found to be an effective catalyst for the deoxygenation process allowing reaching the C16-C18 hydrocarbons yield up to 95 % at 100 % substrate conversion.

This paper presents a study of the pyrolysis process of oil residues in the presence of catalysts based on natural and synthetic aluminosilicates. The process of fast thermal decomposition was studied in a continuous reactor at a residence time of feedstock in the reaction zone less than 20 s. The optimum temperature of oil-sludge decomposition was determined taking into account the yield of gaseous and liquid pyrolysis products. The optimal pyrolysis temperature for the studied feedstock was found to be 600 °C. The study of the effect of the aluminosilicates on the oil-sludge thermal decomposition showed that among the studied catalysts, zeolites were found to be the most active. The highest yield of gaseous and liquid products was observed In the presence of three-dimensional porous pentasil zeolite H-ZSM-5. H-ZSM-5 was found to provide the 40 wt. % yield of liquid and 13.5 wt/ % of gaseous products during the fast oil-sludge pyrolysis at the optimal temperature. In order to reduce the cost of the catalyst used, a catalyst representing a mixture of zeolite H-ZSM-5 and bentonite clay was synthesized. This catalyst also showed high activity in the process of oil-containing residue composition providing 36 w. % yield of liquid products and 10 wt. % of gaseous products. It is interesting to note, that in the presence of the mixed catalyst the highest yield of light liquid fraction (50 wt. %) was obtained.

The search of the novel stable and active catalysts for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis aimed at the formation of gasoline-range hydrocarbons is one of the main directions for the production of liquid transportation fuels from the alternative feedstock. The stabilization of the active phase is one of the key challenges for the development of the catalysts of CO hydrogenation into liquid motor fuel. This problem can be solved by the choice of optimal support as well as the method of synthesis. The rigid polymeric matrices allow obtaining highly effective and stable metal-containing nanoparticles characterized by the high surface area and enhanced activity. A hydrothermal deposition is a promising way to produce catalysts with the high dispersion of the active phase avoiding the pore blockage by the metal-containing particles. The current work is devoted to the development of novel polymer-based mono- and bimetallic Co-, Ni-, and Ru-containing nanocatalysts for the liquid-phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. It was shown that 1 % Ru-HPS and 10 % Co-1 % Ru-HPS allow obtaining a high yield of gasoline-range C5-C9 hydrocarbons (over 70 %) providing high CO conversion (up to 23 %). The chosen polymer-based systems showed high stability in the FTS process. The activity loss was found to be insignificant for both catalysts (3.2 % for 1 % Ru-HPS, and 8.2 % for 10 % Co-1 % Ru-HPS) after 20 h of the process.

A study of the structure and catalytic properties of the cobalt- and iron-containing catalysts synthesized by the subcritical deposition in the water medium was performed in the current work. The catalyst synthesis was carried out at a temperature of 200 °C and a total pressure of 7.5 MPa using silica as support. The catalytic activity of the synthesized materials was studied in the liquid-phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The study of catalyst structure and composition showed that the use of silica as catalyst support allows the formation of Co- and Fe-containing particles consisted of metal oxides. Testing of the synthesized catalysts in liquid phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis showed that Co-based catalyst allowed the formation of gasoline-range hydrocarbons. It is noteworthy that Co/SiO2 showed higher selectivity towards the formation of linear C5-C8 hydrocarbons. In the case of Fe-containing catalyst, the formation of a significant amount of oxygenates (C3-C4 alcohols) was found.

Here, the novel method for the conversion of fatty acids into hydrocarbon fuel without hydrogen consumption is reported. The deoxygenation of stearic acid as a model compound was performed in the medium of supercritical n-hexane in the presence of Ni-containing catalysts synthesized by a hydrothermal deposition method. We studied the influence of the support as well as the metal loading on the yield of target products of stearic acid conversion into hydrocarbons. Ni was supported on the three different supports: anhydrous microporous silica, anhydrous alumina, and non-functionalized hypercrosslinked polystyrene. The hydrothermal synthesis of the catalysts leads to the changes in the porosity and structure of the supports increasing the number of mesopores. The active phase of the catalysts was found to be deposited on the internal surface of the supports as a thin layer of ?-NiOOH. Ni/HPS catalyst was found to be the most active in the stearic acid deoxygenation process in supercritical n-hexane. The study of the influence of the metal loading on the conversion of the substrate and the target product yield showed that 10 wt. % of Ni is more favorable for the production of high yield of C16-C17 hydrocarbons.

Basing on the experimental data the optimal parameters of the pyrolysis of heavy and residual hydrocarbons of oil were defined as follows: temperature of 500 °С; catalyst of CoCl2 with the catalyst loading 5% (wt.) of the substrate weight. Under the optimal conditions the kinetic investigation of the pyrolysis process was carried out using the thermogravimetric method. According to the investigation, it was found that the activation energy of the catalytic pyrolysis of oil-containing waste decreased by 20-30 kJ/mol in comparison to non-catalytic process.

This paper is devoted to the production of second generation biodiesel via catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of fatty acids. Pd/C catalysts with different metal loading were used. The palladium catalysts were characterized using low-temperature nitrogen physisorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was revealed that the most active and selective catalyst was 1%-Pd/C which allowed reaching up 97.5% of selectivity (regarding to n-heptadecane) at 100% conversion of substrate. Moreover, the chosen catalyst is more preferable according to lower metal content that leads the decrease of the process cost. The analysis of the catalysts showed that 1%-Pd/C had the highest specific surface area compared with 5%-Pd/C. Copyright © 2016 BCREC GROUP. All rights reserved Received: 31st July 2015; Revised: 9th December 2015; Accepted: 30th December 2015 How to Cite: Stepacheva, A.A., Sapunov, V.N., Sulman, E.M., Nikoshvili, L.Z., Sulman, M.G., Sidorov, A.I., Demidenko, G.N., Matveeva, V.G. (2016). Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Fatty Acids for Biodiesel Production. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 11 (2): 125-132 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.11.2.538.125-132) Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.11.2.538.125-132 Article Metrics: (click on the button below to see citations in Scopus)

In this paper, the results of the study on the influence of the addition of 10 wt.% of FeCl3, CoCl2, NiCl2, ZnCl2, SnCl2, and CuCl2 on the wheat straw pyrolysis process are presented. The studied chlorides were found to affect the pyrolysis process; however, the highest activity was observed while using CuCl2. The presence of the copper chloride led to the decrease in the temperature of the initial destruction of hemicellulose fraction of wheat straw by 64°С. Besides, the use of CuCl2 allowed increasing the yield of liquid and solid pyrolysis products as well as decreasing the molecular weight distribution of the volatiles. Moreover, the increase in the hydrogen and decrease in carbon dioxide concentration were also observed in the presence of copper chloride. The analysis of the solid residue obtained in the wheat straw pyrolysis in the presence of CuCl2 showed the increase in the specific surface area of the carbon residue from 24 up to 63.5 m2/g in comparison with that obtained for the noncatalytic process.

In the current investigation, we studied the influence of reaction conditions on the liquid products formation and catalysts stability in methanol to gasoline synthesis process. Methanol to gasoline synthesis was carried out in continuous mode regime. Main reaction products were found to be gases including methane, ethylene, propylene, isobutene, and liquid hydrocarbons including cyclopropane and methylcyclopropane, as well as the aromatics - benzene, toluene, xylene, cresol, durol, naphthalene, methylnaphthalene, ethylnaphthalene, isopropylnaphthalene, methylisopropylnaphthalene etc. The optimal reaction conditions were found to be as the following: 5 bar of the total pressure in the system, 330 ºС process temperature, and methanol feed rate 5 mL/min. The optimal reactor size was found to be 30 cm length and 5 mm diameter. Under the established conditions the yield of the liquid strained hydrocarbons was the maximal and reached about 35 wt. %, while the aromatic content was only 3 wt. %.