The catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapors, prior to condensation, requires catalysts that can activate and incorporate H2 at relatively low pressures and low hydrogen-to-carbon environments, are stable under acidic conditions, and favor cleaving C-O bonds over C-C bonds [1, 2]. Transition metal carbides are promising materials for this process as they exhibit reactivities towards carbon and hydrogen similar to other transition metals (i.e., Ru and Ir), but have much higher reactivities towards oxygen [3]. Recently, transition metal carbides have been shown to selectively cleave C-O bonds and favor hydrodeoxygenation over decarbonylation/decarboxylation [4, 5]. However, there is limited understanding of the metal carbide surface chemistry under reaction conditions and the majority of the prior research has been focused on model compounds. This work combines density functional theory modeling, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier Transform spectroscopy, and catalytic testing with both model compounds (acetic acid and guaiacol) and pine pyrolysis vapors to evaluate the deoxygenation performance of molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) catalysts and probe the surface chemistry and nature of the active sites under ex-situ catalytic fast pyrolysis conditions. References: 1. Ruddy, D. A., Schaidle, J. A., Ferrell, J. R., Wang, J., Moens, L., and Hensley, J. E. Green Chem. 16, 454 (2014). 2. Dutta, A., Schaidle, J. A., Humbird, D., Baddour, F. G., Sahir, A. Top Catal. (2015) DOI 10.1007/s11244-015-0500-z. 3. Medford, A. J., Vojvodic, A., Studt, F., Abild-Pedersen, F., and Norskov, J. K. J. Catal. 290, 108 (2012). 4. Ren, H., Yu, W., Salciccioli, M., Chen, Y., Huang, Y., Xiong, K., Vlachos, D. G., and Chen, J. G. ChemSusChem 6, 798 (2013). 5. Ren, H., Chen, Y., Huang, Y., Den, W., Vlachos, D. G., and Chen, J. G. Green Chem. 16, 761 (2014).

Vapor-phase upgrading over oxophilic molybdenum carbide catalysts: From model compounds to biomass pyrolysis vapors

251st National Meeting (2016)

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