Issue 9, 2020

Zr-Incorporating SBA-15 for conversion of the ethanol–acetaldehyde mixture to butadiene

Abstract

Upgrading bio-ethanol into high value chemicals is an important issue in biomass conversion, and conversion of ethanol into butadiene is one of the most feasible methods. Here Zr-incorporating mesoporous SBA-15 (Zr–SBA-15) materials with different Si/Zr ratios were successfully synthesized by a one-pot method and were employed as catalysts for the conversion of the ethanol (EtOH)–acetaldehyde (AcH) mixture to butadiene. The textural structure and acidity of Zr–SBA-15 were investigated by using XRD, N2 adsorption, TEM, FT-IR, UV-vis, XPS, NH3-TPD and Py-IR, and the results of these characterizations indicated the mesoporosity of Zr–SBA-15 and confirmed the incorporation of Zr into the framework. Zr–O–Si bonds were formed by the incorporation and exhibited Lewis acidity predominantly. The influence of the Si/Zr ratio and reaction conditions (temperature, EtOH/AcH ratio and WHSV) showed that a suitable Si/Zr ratio was needed to balance the butadiene selectivity, by-product selectivity and total conversion. Amongst the prepared catalysts, Zr–SBA-15-20 achieved the best butadiene selectivity of 74.0% at a relatively low temperature (275 °C). The good catalytic performance could be attributed to the homogeneous dispersion of Zr species and Zr–O–Si bond generated by Zr incorporation. Furthermore, EtOH-TPD and AcH-TPD experiments proved the essential role of acetaldehyde addition and the well-accepted reaction pathway.

Graphical abstract: Zr-Incorporating SBA-15 for conversion of the ethanol–acetaldehyde mixture to butadiene

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Apr 2020
Accepted
24 Jul 2020
First published
25 Jul 2020

React. Chem. Eng., 2020,5, 1833-1844

Zr-Incorporating SBA-15 for conversion of the ethanol–acetaldehyde mixture to butadiene

G. Yang, L. Wang and H. Jiang, React. Chem. Eng., 2020, 5, 1833 DOI: 10.1039/D0RE00160K

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