Microwave Enhanced Catalytic Production of Biofuels

CBET-0756663 ConnerBiofuels目前可以从各种天然原料中生产。从玉米或甘蔗中的糖生产乙醇已经很发达。植物油向柴油燃料或燃料添加剂的转化通常基于回收用过的和新鲜的植物油作为进料而分批实施。生物燃料的生产必须是高度优化和高效的过程，才能在经济上与化石燃料资源竞争。因此，开发消耗最少能量的转化工艺至关重要。微波加热已被证明是非常有利的，通过减少一些反应，包括有机/无机合成，聚合，聚合物加工，药物合成等的能量需求。微波加热的植物油酯交换反应，生产生物柴油有一个惊人的数量级减少的反应时间和能量相比，传统的加热方法。在生物化学解决方案正在以不断增长的速度被追求的同时，有相当多的证据表明，可能存在其他途径来生产实用的生物燃料，采用新的多相催化过程。微波增强其他非均相催化反应已被证明，我们最近证实，非均相催化剂也适用于生物柴油生产。本研究的重点是研究利用微波加热采用非均相催化剂的生物燃料合成反应的组合。这些研究将采用多相催化、生物燃料工艺开发和微波反应器工程的跨学科组合。这项建议的重点是将天然产物转化为液体燃料，这是一个及时的研究领域。本研究将联合收割机与多相催化剂相结合，以促进这些过程。将研究两种工艺：植物油的酯交换和糖的水相重整。这些反应由酸/碱和/或负载的金属催化剂催化。我们将采用原位振动和紫外光谱的反应修饰来揭示这些系统在微波增强机制上的差异。更有效的生物燃料生产无疑是一个重要的研究领域。通过微波能量增强的多相催化剂具有显著提高这些转化的效率和选择性的潜力。这包括开发生物燃料生产的连续工艺。与此同时，微波反应器工程和机械的理解将得到发展。来自不同学科的研究生将在这个跨学科的研究互动。我们已经开发了一个关于生物燃料转化的本科生实验室实验。此外，我们将继续开发和接触高中学生教他们有关微波和微波化学。

CBET-0756663ConnerBiofuels can currently be produced from a variety of natural feedstocks. The production of ethanol from sugars in corn or sugar cane is well developed. The conversion of vegetable oils to diesel fuel or fuel additives is typically being implemented on a batch-wise basis based on recycling used and fresh vegetable oils as feeds. The production of biofuels must be a highly optimized and efficient process to be economically competitive with fossil fuel resources. Therefore, it is critical that conversion processes be developed that consume minimal amounts of energy. Microwave heating has been shown to be tremendously advantageous by decreasing the energy requirements for a number of reactions including organic/inorganic syntheses, polymerization, polymer processing, pharmaceutical syntheses, etc. Microwave heating for transesterification of vegetable oil to produce biodiesel has an amazing order of magnitude decrease in the reaction time and energy compared to conventional heating methods. At the same time as the Biochemical solutions are being pursued at an ever increasing rate, there is considerable evidence that other routes may exist to produce practical biofuels employing new heterogeneous catalytic processes. Microwave enhancements of other heterogeneous catalytic reactions have been demonstrated and we have recently confirmed that heterogeneous catalysts also work for BioDiesel production. The focus of this research is to study the combination of biofuels synthesis reactions using microwave heating employing heterogeneous catalysts. An interdisciplinary combination of heterogeneous catalysis, Biofuels process development and microwave reactor engineering will be employed in these studies.This proposal focuses on the conversion of natural products to liquid fuels, a timely area of research. This research will combine the application of microwave engineering with heterogeneous catalysts to facilitate these processes. Two processes will be studied: transesterification of vegetable oil and aqueous phase reforming of sugars. These reactions are catalyzed by acid/base and/or supported metal catalysts. We will employ reaction modification with in situ vibrational and UV spectroscopies to unravel the differences in microwave enhancement mechanisms for these systems.More efficient biofuels production is certainly a crucial area for study. Heterogeneous catalysts enhanced by microwave energy have the potential to improve the efficiency and selectivity of these conversions significantly. This includes the development of continuous processes for biofuels production. At the same time, the microwave reactor engineering and mechanistic understanding will be developed. Graduate students from different disciplines will interact in this interdisciplinary research. We have already developed a undergraduate laboratory experiment on biofuels conversion. Further, we will continue to develop and to reach out to High School students to teach them about microwaves and microwave chemistry.