As a result of increasing fuel prices, there has been a significant interest to explore ways to produce renewable fuels using biomass derived materials. One challenge in using biomass or biomass derivatives is the presence of oxygen. Cost effective removal of oxygen (deoxygenation) has been one of the greatest technical challenges in biomass-to-biofuel conversion process. Although hydrogen gas has been proven to be technically feasible, the high costs make such technology less sustainable.Methane which is predominantly present in natural gas is an abundantly available raw material. A study was conducted with 13C labeled glucose and 12CD4 to find out if methane can be used as the direct hydrogen donor for the deoxygenation reaction. The catalysts were prepared by impregnating ZSM-5 with different transition metals (Pt, Cr, Ni) and oxides (Ga2O3, MoO3, CeO2) with different loading levels such as 1%, 2% and 5% using insipient wetness technique. The results from isotope studies indicate that methane participates in the deoxygenation process in the presence of transition metal catalysts. Specifically, the results suggest a reaction route dominated via steam reforming in the presence of Pt/ZSM-5 and Ni/ZSM-5 catalysts. The screening study revealed that 5%Pt/ZSM-5 to be the best performing catalyst. Further a significant increase of BTX yields were observed when methane was introduced to the reactant mix in the presence of 5%Pt/ZSM-5 and 5%Mo/ZSM-5 catalysts.

Methane as a hydrogen donor for the deoxygenation of biomass derived organics

247th National Meeting (2014)

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