Synthesis and Activity Test of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 for the Methanol Steam Reforming as a Fuel Cell's Hydrogen Supplier

The synthesis of hydrogen from hydrocarbons through the steam reforming of methanol on Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst has been investigated. This process is assigned to be one of the promising alternatives for fuel cell hydrogen process source. Hydrogen synthesis from methanol can be carried out by means of methanol steam reforming which is a gas phase catalytic reaction between methanol and water. In this research, the Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst prepared by the dry impregnation was used. The specific surface area of catalyst was 194.69 m2/gram.The methanol steam reforming (SRM) reaction was carried out by means of the injection of gas mixture containing methanol and water with 1:1.2 mol ratio and 20-90 mL/minute feed flow rate to a fixed bed reactor loaded by 1 g of catalyst. The reaction temperature was 200-300 °C, and the reactor pressure was 1 atm. Preceding the reaction, catalyst was reduced in the H2/N2 mixture at 160 °C. This study shows that at 300 °C reaction temperature, methanol conversion reached 100% at 28 mL/minute gas flow rate. This conversion decreased significantly with the increase of gas flow rate. Meanwhile, the catalyst prepared for SRM was stable in 36 hours of operation at 260 °C. The catalyst exhibited a good stability although the reaction condition was shifted to a higher gas flow rate

Synthesis of NaY Zeolite Using Mixed Calcined Kaolins

Kaolin is one of several types of clay minerals. The most common crystalline phase constituting kaolin minerals is kaolinite, with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. Kaolin is mostly used for manufacturing traditional ceramics and also to synthesize zeolites or molecular sieves. The Si-O and Al-O structures in kaolin are inactive and inert, so activation by calcination is required. This work studies the conversion of kaolin originating from Bangka island in Indonesia into calcined kaolin phase as precursor in NaY zeolite synthesis. In the calcination process, the kaolinite undergoes phase transformations from metakaolin to mullite. The Bangka kaolin is 74.3% crystalline, predominantly composed of kaolinite, and 25.7% amorphous, with an SiO2/Al2O3 mass ratio of 1.64. Thermal characterization using simultaneous DSC/TGA identified an endothermic peak at 527°C and an exothermic peak at 1013°C. Thus, three calcination temperatures (700, 1013, and 1050 °C) were selected to produce calcined kaolins with different phase distributions. The best product, with 87.8% NaY zeolite in the 54.7% crystalline product and an SiO2/Al2O3 molar ratio of 5.35, was obtained through hydrothermal synthesis using mixed calcined kaolins with a composition of K700C : K1013C : K1050C = 10 : 85 : 5 in %-mass, with seed addition, at a temperature of 93 °Cand a reaction time of 15 hours

Exceptional Aromatic Distribution in the Conversion of Palm-Oil to Biohydrocarbon Using Zeolite-Based Catalyst

A series of four catalysts, i.e. ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 25) (Z1), a combination of ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 25) and zeolite Y (Si/Al = 25) (Z2), zeolite Y (Si/Al = 25) (Z3), and ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 80) (Z4), was successfully prepared for catalytic cracking of palm oil. All three catalysts utilized silica as a binder without other additional components. Catalytic cracking tests showed that the aromatic distribution was very high, according to the following order: Z4 (98%) > Z1 (90%) > Z2 (84%) > Z3 (60%). It was shown that ZSM-5 promotes the formation of aromatics better than zeolite Y does. From 98% of aromatics products in Z1, 71% were benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX). It appears that the formation of aromatics needs milder acidity since a higher number of acids extends the cracking reaction, resulting in the formation of more gaseous and heavy aromatics products. The results of this study show potential for the sustainable production of bio-hydrocarbons with exceptional aromatic distributions, which may fulfill the demands of the petroleum, petrochemical, and fine chemical sectors

Hydrogenation of 2-ethyl-2-hexenal to alcohol over nickel-based catalysts: Effects of nickel content and promoter

The catalytic hydrogenation of 2-ethyl-2-hexenal (EPA) on a nickel-based catalyst via 2-ethyl-2-hexanal as an intermediate product is one of the step in manufacturing 2-ethylhexanol (EH). In this study, a nickel-based catalyst was synthesized using peptization and impregnation method. The catalyst's performance was examined utilizing a batch reactor adjusted for nickel loading and promoters. The surface area of the synthesized catalysts was around 61.5 – 235.2 m2/g with 76.4 Å pore size and 0.19 mL/g average pore volume. The catalyst was tested in an isothermal batch reactor at 120 °C and 30 bar. The nickel-based catalyst with 53%-Ni loading had the highest catalytic activity, with 100% EPA conversion and 81% EH selectivity. In addition, copper has been demonstrated to be the most effective catalyst promoter. The thermodynamic and kinetic approaches were also used in this investigation