HETEROGENEOUS CATALYTIC FRACTIONATION OF BIRCH-WOOD BIOMASS INTO MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE, XYLOSE AND ENTEROSORBENTS

For the first time, it was proposed to fractionate the main components of birch wood into microcrystalline cellulose, xylose and enterosorbents by integrating heterogeneous catalytic processes of acid hydrolysis and peroxide delignification of wood biomass. The hydrolysis of wood hemicelluloses into xylose is carried out at a temperature of 150 °C in the presence of a solid acid catalyst Amberlyst® 15. Then the lignocellulosic product undergoes peroxide delignification in a "formic acid – water" medium in the presence of a solid TiO2 catalyst to obtain microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and soluble lignin. Under the determined optimal conditions (100 °С, Н2О2 – 7.2 wt.%, НСООН – 37.8 wt.%, LWR 15, time 4 h), the yield of MCC reaches 64.5 wt.% and of organosolvent lignin 11.5 wt% from the weight of prehydrolyzed wood. By the treatment of organosolvent lignin with a solution of 0.4% NaHCO3 or hot water the enterosorbents were obtained, whose sorption capacity for methylene blue (97.7 mg/g) and gelatin (236.7 mg/g) is significantly higher than that of the commercial enterosorbent Polyphepan (44 mg/g and 115 mg/g, respectively). The products of catalytic fractionation of birch wood are characterized by physicochemical (FTIR, XRD, SEM, GC) and chemical methods.

The Role of Heterogeneous Catalytic Processes in the Green Hydrogen Economy

In a recent United Nations draft report (August 2021), a large number of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change described the climate change over the past century as “unprecedented” and warned that the world will warm at an increasing rate, with unpredictable results, unless aggressive action to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases is taken [...]

THE SOLVING OF THE PROBLEM IN THE WORKING ZONE. THE NUMERICAL CALCULATION OF THE MODEL OF THE NIZHNEKAMSK REACTOR FOR THE STYRENE PRODUCTION (PART-3)

Heterogeneous catalytic processes conducted in axial or radial type reactors with a still catalytic layer are some of the most important elements of the chemical technology. The attention of scientists and manufacturers to the investigation and application of these contact units deals with the following advantages: a highly developed surface of a phase separation, a possibility to provide a high flow velocity and hence to decrease sizes and a material consumption, a construction simplicity and a reliability of an exploit. Improving an operation of contact units may be achieved by refining present technologies, catalysts, disperse system structures and by creating new ones. Nevertheless, in some cases large scale hydrodynamic heterogeneities in a working zone of the unit cancel out efforts to increase an efficiency of chemical, heat/mass transfer and other processes. The exploration of reasons of the hydrodynamic heterogeneities formation requires an investigation of liquid and gas motion physics features in granular layers. A practice of a chemical reactors exploitation reveals that technical and economical indicators of an industrial process are as a rule lower than the calculated ones, derived on a stage of the process design. Now it can be considered proven that one of the reasons affecting the reactor output is the heterogeneity of a reagents flow in a granular catalyst layer. The article deals with a mathematical modeling of an incompressible liquid flow in flat and radial contact units with the still granular layer and a creation of numerical realization methods for the model We propose a cycle of articles dealt with a model of a real reactor that consists of three parts: a distributing manifold, a collecting manifold and a working zone, where the still layer of a granular catalyst is loaded. An input and an output are made with a Z-shaped scheme. We consider processes and their equations in each reactor zone in detail.

Synchronous oxidation and sequestration for As(iii) from aqueous solution by modified CuFe2O4 coupled with peroxymonosulfate: a fast and stable heterogeneous process

Bifunctional heterogeneous catalytic processes for highly efficient removal of arsenic (As(iii)) are receiving increased attention.

Heterogeneous Catalysis in (Bio)Ethanol Conversion to Chemicals and Fuels: Thermodynamics, Catalysis, Reaction Paths, Mechanisms and Product Selectivities

In gas/solid conditions, different chemicals, such as diethylether, ethylene, butadiene, higher hydrocarbons, acetaldehyde, acetone and hydrogen, can be produced from ethanol with heterogeneous catalytic processes. The focus of this paper is the interplay of different reaction paths, which depend on thermodynamic factors as well as on kinetic factors, thus mainly from catalyst functionalities and reaction temperatures. Strategies for selectivity improvements in heterogeneously catalyzed processes converting (bio)ethanol into renewable chemicals and biofuels are also considered.

In-Situ Characterization of 1-Hexene Concentration with a Helium-Neon Laser in the presence of a Solid Catalyst

This study provides evidence that a helium-neon (He-Ne) laser operating in the Mid-infrared (MIR) at a wavelength of 3.39 μm can detect variations in 1-hexene concentration in the presence of a solid catalyst. The in-situ and online characterization of the concentration of 1-hexene, as an example of a hydrocarbon, is relevant to enhance the current understanding of the interaction between hydrodynamics and chemistry in different heterogeneous catalytic processes. We designed and built a laboratory-scale downer unit that enabled us to analyze heterogeneous catalytic reactions and provided optical access. The lab-scale reactor was 180-cm long, had an internal diameter of 1.3 cm, and was made of fused quartz to allow the passage of the laser beam. 1-hexene was carefully measured, vaporized, and fed into the reactor through two inlets located at an angle of 45 degrees from the vertical descendent flow and 70 cm below the input of a solid catalyst and a purge flow entraining N2. A system of five heaters, which can be moved in the vertical direction to allow the passage of the laser beam, guaranteed temperatures up to 823 K. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the hydrodynamics of the system indicated that a uniform temperature profile in the reaction section was reached after the catalyst and the feed mixed. The estimated catalyst to oil ratio and time on stream in the experiments were, respectively, 0.4 to 1.3 and 2 s. After a correction for laser power drift, the experimental results showed a linear response of the fractional transmission to the 1-hexene concentration that was independent of temperature in the 373 K–673 K range. Even in the presence of a catalyst, the absorption of 1-hexene at the MIR frequency of the laser was high enough to enable the detection of 1-hexene since the fractional absorption of the absorbing path length in these experiments was close to zero (0.013 m) and the 1-hexene concentrations were higher than 1.254 × 10-5 mol/cm3. This result demonstrated the ability of the laser system to measure the concentration of 1-hexene in the presence of a catalyst and indicates that it can be used to better decouple hydrodynamics from kinetics in heterogeneous catalytic processes.