Hydrodeoxygenation of Acetic Acid Using Monometallic and Bimetallic Catalysts Supported on Carbon

Heterogeneous catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived feeds is a deoxygenation process that is of highly interest. Carboxylic acids are one of the main components of bio-oils and acetic acid (AA) is one of the most abundant of these carboxylic acids. This acid is rich in oxygen, therefore there is a lot of research for to produce fuel and other valuable chemicals such as ethanol. We investigated heterogeneous catalysis for the HDO of AA using supported group noble metals. Temperature-dependence selectivity and activity were evaluated in a conventionally continuous plug-flow reactor operated between 200-400oC under atmospheric pressure with concentrations of 1.1% AA/20% H2/balance in He. The activity and kinetics involving the reaction rate orders with respect to AA and H2 and apparent activation energies were discussed in detail. Several pathways were found when using monometallic catalysts such as: decarbonylation, decarboxylation, hydrogenation and ketonization. For the bimetallic catalyst the main pathways at low temperatures was hydrogenation. Also, on a different project phosphorous nickel phosphide (Ni2P) is investigated. This material is being used in the HDO reaction of different carboxylic acids. The focus of this work is to investigate (P) diffusion in bulk Ni2P by density functional theory (DFT) to find the origin of the low temperature P diffusion into the surface. Monday, April 23, 2018 2:00 PM Swearingen Room 3C02