Catalytic Conversion of Syngas to Higher Alcohols Over Cu-Fe Based Catalysts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mississippi State University Scholars Junction Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2014 Catalytic Conversion of Syngas to Higher Alcohols over Cu-Fe Based Catalysts Yongwu Lu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td Recommended Citation Lu, Yongwu, "Catalytic Conversion of Syngas to Higher Alcohols over Cu-Fe Based Catalysts" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 970. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/970 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Scholars Junction. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Junction. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Automated Template C: Created by James Nail 2013V2.1 Catalytic conversion of syngas to higher alcohols over Cu-Fe based catalysts By Yongwu Lu A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Mississippi State, Mississippi December 2014 Copyright by Yongwu Lu 2014 Catalytic conversion of syngas to higher alcohols over Cu-Fe based catalysts By Yongwu Lu Approved: ____________________________________ Fei Yu (Major Professor) ____________________________________ Janice DuBien (Minor Professor) ____________________________________ Todd E. Mlsna (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Judith A. Schneider (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Radhakrishnan Srinivasan (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Rajkumar Prabhu (Graduate Coordinator) ____________________________________ Jason M. Keith Interim Dean Bagley College of Engineering Name: Yongwu Lu Date of Degree: December 13, 2014 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: Biological Engineering Major Professor: Dr. Fei Yu Title of Study: Catalytic conversion of syngas to higher alcohols over Cu-Fe based catalysts Pages in Study: 159 Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Higher alcohol synthesis (HAS) from syngas or biomass-derived syngas is an important process for the production of oxygenate fuels, fuel additives and other intermediates for value-added chemical feedstock to produce medicine, cosmetics, lubricants, detergents, and polyesters. Chapter I reviews biomass to liquid fuels technology, higher alcohols being used as alternative fuels and fuel additives, the historical perspective and commercial status of higher alcohols, the catalyst system and the reaction mechanism for HAS from syngas. Chapter II discusses the Zn-Mn promoted Cu-Fe based catalyst that was synthesized by the co-precipitation method. The reaction temperature has been tested to study the influence on the catalytic performance. The maximal CO conversion rate was 72%, and the yield of alcohol and hydrocarbon was also very high. Cu was the active site for alcohol synthesis, iron carbide was the active site for olefin and paraffin synthesis. The reaction mechanism of HAS from syngas over Zn-Mn promoted Cu-Fe based catalyst was proposed. Chapter III documents the three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) Cu- Fe catalyst developed using a glyoxylate route colloidal crystal template method. The high intrinsic activity was ascribed to three factors. First, the unique ordered structure has a large pore size and interconnected macroporous tunnels of the catalyst with a large accessible surface area to improve the catalytic activity. Second, a high density of 0 uniformly distributed defective Cu and Fe5C2 nanoparticles derived from the glyoxylate route helps to provide abundant, active, and stable dual sites. Third, atomic steps on the Cu surface, induced by planar defects and lattice strain, serve as high-activity oxygenation sites. Active Fe5C2 chain-growth sites intimately surround the defective and strained form of the Cu surface, which results in a synergetic effect between the active and stable Cu–FexCy dual site for HAS. In Chapter IV, in situ ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ synchrotron powder diffraction were applied to identify the active site of 3DOM Cu- Fe catalyst for HAS. The results show that after syngas pretreatment of the 3DOM Cu-Fe 0 catalyst, Cu is the active oxygenation site for alcohol synthesis, and Fe5C2 is the active site for carbon chain growth. Key words: higher alcohol synthesis, syngas, copper-iron catalyst, co-precipitation, three- dimensionally ordered macroporous, active site, defect, structure-activity relationship, in situ AP–XPS, in situ synchrotron powder diffraction DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my beloved parents, Mr. Baishi Lu and Mrs. Shaofeng Huang. Thank you very much for your love, support and encouragement all these years. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my profound gratitude to Dr. Fei Yu, my major professor for his immeasurable support, consistent encouragement throughout my graduate study and this project. Without his valued guidance, perseverance, and patience, I would have not completed this work. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Janice DuBien at Department of Mathematics and Statistics, my minor professor for her kind instruction and valuable guidance on Statistics for the experimental design of my research. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Todd E. Mlsna at Department of Chemistry, Dr. Judith A. Schneider at Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Radhakrishnan Srinivasan at Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, not only for their input in the preparation of this dissertation, but also for the many hours of their quality instructions provided to me in my graduate study leading up to this point. I would like to thank Ms. Amanda Lawrence, Mr. Richard F. Kuklinski and Dr. I-Wei Chu at Institute for Imaging and Analytical Technologies, Dr. Erick Vasquez and Dr. Ersan Eyiler at Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Qi Li at Department of Sustainable Bioproducts for their assistance and technical support. I would like to thank all the members in Dr. Yu’s group, Dr. Jin Hu, Dr. Jason Street, Eugene P. Columbus, Dr. Jian Liu, Dr. Qiangu Yan, Peng Zhou, and Zhenghong Bao for their assistance and helpful discussion. I would like to thank Ms. Sharron D. Miles, Ms. Kimberly Capp, iii Ms. Michele Anderson, Ms. Lisa Leach, and Ms. Ronda Walker-kinard at Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering for their kind help with paperwork. I would like to thank my collaborators, Dr. Baobao Cao at Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for his technical support and valuable discussion on high resolution transmission electron microscopy characterization, Dr. Franklin (Feng) Tao and Dr. Junjun Shan at Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame for their technical support on in situ ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study, and Dr. Gregory J. Halder at X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory for his technical support on in situ synchrotron powder diffraction study. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved parents, Mr. Baishi Lu and Mrs. Shaofeng Huang, and my wife Yidan Guan, for their love, encouragement, and support. This material is based upon work performed through the Sustainable Energy Research Center at Mississippi State University and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award Number DE-FG3606GO86025, DE-FC2608NT0192. Financial support from U.S. Department of Agriculture under Award number AB567370MSU is appreciated. Financial support provided by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, under the Award No. 2012- 10008-20302 is also appreciated. Work performed at Argonne National Laboratory and use of the Advanced Photon Source were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, iv Office of Basic Energy Sciences, through contract No.DE-AC02-06CH11357. The use of Field Emission–Scanning Electron Microscope (FE–SEM), X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) at Institute for Imaging and Analytical Technologies (I2AT) at Mississippi State University (MSU) were supported by National Science Foundation under NSF-MRI Grant # DBI-1126743, “Acquisition of a multi-user, analytical transmission electron microscope (TEM) for multi-disciplinary research and training”, NSF-MRI Grant # DMR-0619773, “Acquisition of a Multi User, High Resolution, Research Grade X-ray Diffractometer”, and NSF-IMR Grant # DMR- 0216703 and 02070615, “Acquisition of a Multi User Analytical FE–SEM for Education and Research”. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER I. HETEROGENEOUS