The reverse flow adsorption technology for the process integrated recycling of homogeneous catalysts

Abstract in dissertation

Silica adsorbent design and process evaluation for recovery of homogeneous catalysts by reverse flow adsorption

The goal of this work is to demonstrate the stability of reverse flow adsorption process for recovery of homogeneous catalysts and to study the influence of catalyst and adsorbent properties for optimizing the RFA process operation. Data used in simulations were obtained from our previous work. Two models are developed to describe the reversible adsorption. One which describes the adsorption of the metal containing species and second model that describes adsorption of the free ligand. It is shown that stable operation is reached, where leaching of metal is prevented. The RFA process can be applied for wide ranges of the catalyst's stability constants [100-1012 (dm3/mol)2] and it is specially applicable for the recovery of homogeneous catalysts that have a low metal concentration. Values of the adsorbent (M = 0.8, = 1850, PeP = 376.4, dp = 100 m and b = 0.5) and the column characteristics (Bo = 1.74 × 104 and N = 6.6 × 104) that provide a sharp concentration profile inside the bed are determined. Simulation of the recovery of Rh catalyst in the BASF hydroformylation process required a total adsorption bed volume of 6% of reactor volume. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 200

Adsorption kinetics of DowexTM OptiporeTM L493 for the removal of the furan 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from sugar

BACKGROUND: Recently much research has been focused on the production and refinery of biobased fuels. The production of biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass is recognized as a promising route to produce biobased fuels responsibly. Often, product streams (e.g. glucose) still contain small amounts of undesired components (e.g. furans such as HMF). This study focuses on the removal of furans produced during the fermentation. In earlier work, styrene based resins have been identified as promising materials for this separation. In this work the kinetic properties of the most promising resin: DowexTM OptiporeTM L493 are studied. RESULTS: The diffusion coefficient of 5 mg L-1 HMF was ∼8×10-12 m2 s-1 in water and 3.0×10-12 m2 s-1 in a glucose solution. The reduced diffusion coefficient in the particle when glucose is present is caused by the higher viscosity of the glucose solution and it indicates that diffusion is controlled by surface and pore diffusion. The breakthrough curves of HMF on Optipore showed that the column is very efficient under conditions of interest. CONCLUSION: This study shows that Optipore is a much more efficient resin for HMF removal than currently used resins. Its fast kinetics and capacity make it possible to efficiently remove HMF from glucose solutions