Microwave Enhanced Catalytic Production of Biofuels

CBET-0756663目前可以从各种天然原料中生产生物燃料。从玉米或甘蔗中的糖生产乙醇的技术已经很发达了。将植物油转化为柴油或燃料添加剂，通常是在回收使用过的和新鲜的植物油作为饲料的基础上分批实施的。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相竞争。因此，开发消耗最少能源的转换工艺是至关重要的。微波加热可以减少有机/无机合成、聚合、聚合物加工、药物合成等反应所需的能量，具有巨大的优势。与传统加热方法相比，微波加热用于植物油酯交换生产生物柴油的反应时间和能量有惊人的减少。随着人们对生化解决方案的追求越来越快，有大量证据表明，可能存在其他方法来利用新的多相催化过程生产实用的生物燃料。微波强化了其他多相催化反应，我们最近证实了多相催化剂也适用于生物柴油的生产。本研究的重点是研究多相催化剂在微波加热下合成生物燃料的组合反应。这些研究将采用多相催化、生物燃料工艺开发和微波反应堆工程的跨学科组合。这项建议侧重于将天然产品转化为液体燃料，这是一个及时的研究领域。本研究将把微波工程的应用与多相催化剂相结合，以促进这些过程的进行。将研究两个过程：植物油的酯交换反应和糖的水相重整反应。这些反应由酸/碱和/或负载型金属催化剂催化。我们将利用原位振动光谱和紫外光谱进行反应修饰，以揭示这些系统在微波增强机制上的差异。更有效地生产生物燃料肯定是一个关键的研究领域。微波能强化的多相催化剂有可能显著提高这些转化的效率和选择性。这包括开发生物燃料生产的连续工艺。同时，还将加深对微波反应堆工程和机理的认识。来自不同学科的研究生将在这项跨学科研究中进行互动。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，我们将继续发展和接触高中生，教授他们关于微波和微波化学的知识。

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.