Effect of Metal Chlorides on the Pyrolysis of Wheat Straw

In this paper, the results of the study on the influence of the addition of 10 wt.% of FeCl3, CoCl2, NiCl2, ZnCl2, SnCl2, and CuCl2 on the wheat straw pyrolysis process are presented. The studied chlorides were found to affect the pyrolysis process; however, the highest activity was observed while using CuCl2. The presence of the copper chloride led to the decrease in the temperature of the initial destruction of hemicellulose fraction of wheat straw by 64°С. Besides, the use of CuCl2 allowed increasing the yield of liquid and solid pyrolysis products as well as decreasing the molecular weight distribution of the volatiles. Moreover, the increase in the hydrogen and decrease in carbon dioxide concentration were also observed in the presence of copper chloride. The analysis of the solid residue obtained in the wheat straw pyrolysis in the presence of CuCl2 showed the increase in the specific surface area of the carbon residue from 24 up to 63.5 m2/g in comparison with that obtained for the noncatalytic process

ZnO Particles Stabilized in Polymeric Matrix for Liquid-Phase Methanol Synthesis

ZnO supported on hypercrosslinked polystyrene was developed for liquid-phase methanol synthesis. The synthesized catalyst was characterized using the low-temperature nitrogen physisorption, TEM, XPS, XAS, and CO DRIFT methods. The analysis showed that the catalyst has a high specific surface area (720 m2/g) and is characterized by the micro-mesoporous structure typical of the polymer used. The active phase is represented by ZnO species with a hexagonal wurtzite structure. ZnO-HPS showed high activity, selectivity, and stability in liquid-phase methanol synthesis in comparison with the industrial catalyst. The activity of the proposed catalyst was found to be 1.64 times higher than that of the conventional Cu/ZnO/Al2O3

Comparison of methanol to gasoline conversion in one-step, two-step, and cascade mode in the presence of H-ZSM-5 zeolite

In this report, three technological modes for methanol-to-gasoline reaction in the presence of H-ZSM-5 catalyst are compared: (i) direct methanol transformation to hydrocarbons; (ii) two-step (methanol-dimethyl ether-hydrocarbons); and (iii) cascade pathway. Light hydrocarbon gases (methane, ethylene, propylene, and isobutene) and liquid aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene, cresol, durol, naphthalene, methylnaphthalene, ethyl naphthalene, isopropyl naphthalene, methyl isopropyl naphthalene, etc.) were found to be the main reaction products. The experimental results showed that the classical two-step methanol to gasoline (MTG) process nowadays remains the most effective for gasoline-range hydrocarbons production, while one-step and cascade schemes require further investigation and the development of reactor systems as well as the operating conditions. The product distribution of MTG synthesis after 120 h on stream in the case of two-step mode was found to be the following: liquid C6–C8 hydrocarbons – 23%; C1–C5 gaseous products – 65%; heavy C9–C12 hydrocarbons – 10%