Butadiene is a chemical molecule of interest for the production of synthetic rubbers. Due to a growing demand and a reduction in its production capacity from fossil fuels, alternative routes to synthesize this compound have recently recorded a growing interest. One route using bio-based ethanol as raw material, is a two-step process called Ostromislensky process. It consists in partial conversion of ethanol into acetaldehyde in a first reactor before converting an ethanol / acetaldehyde mixture into butadiene in the second stage. Regarding this reaction, different schemes have already been proposed in the literature. The most accepted was described by Jones (1949) (see Figure 1). While this mechanism is commonly accepted, it is not fully demonstrated. Other pathways have been proposed through reactions such as the Prins reaction or intra-molecular hydrogen transfer. The objective of the study is to identify the chemical pathway(s) and to develop a kinetic model for the production of butadiene from an ethanol / acetaldehyde mixture. In order to develop the kinetic model, the reaction scheme is studied by means of fixed bed type catalytic tests involving various reagents and reaction intermediates assumed to exist, including those proposed in the reactions mentioned above, and tests of side reactions. The reactor (gas / solid, isothermal and isobaric) is modeled in steady state. An optimizer is developed to fit the model kinetic parameters on the experimental results.

Experimental study and kinetic modeling of the transformation of ethanol and acetaldehyde mixture into butadiene

2019 Spring National Meeting

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