Title : Design & Synthesis of cost effective NiPMoS/Laponite and its use as a superior catalyst for hydrodeoxygenation of furfural
Abstract:
In the near future, fossil fuel era will soon been undoubtedly wiped out in accordance with the British Petroleum statistics and International energy agency. In addition, increasing global energy demand, climate change and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from fossil fuels make it a high priority to search for an alternative energy resource. Hence, biomass will undoubtedly be one of the abundant, sustainable and renewable resources for future energy production. In India, 1500 lakhs tons agro waste is produced every year. Farmers are widely used to burn agricultural waste creating air pollution. Till now, many countries failed to find its productive use in the absence of enough government push, improper agro-waste management and business model to enhance rural economy for farmers. Lignocellulose waste is commonly discharged from coir and cork process, paper pulp industries as waste materials. If it is handled correctly, it can be processed efficiently over eco-friendly, cheap heterogeneous catalysts, with the production of value-added chemicals and fuels that could be used as alternative energy source to fossil fuels and would increase a bio-based economy.
Commercial solid acids such as zeolites & alumina, metal catalysts, such as for instance Mo, Pt, Pd, Re, Rh, Ru were previously investigated for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). Microporous nature of commercial zeolites, coke formation, metal leaching on the ?-alumina (?–Al2O3) and zeolite supports limit their practical applications in hydrotreating. By modifying cheap Laponite RD clay, desired textural properties and morphology in nanoscale range can be created. Hence, it can be used as a low cost support for the catalyst. Industrial hydrotreating, supported Ni (Co) promoted Mo or W sulfide catalysts were usually synthesized by post sulfidation of the oxide catalyst at high temperature with several sulfiding agents. In order to avoid high exposure of H2S gas, the current research work has been planned to synthesize MoS2 catalysts under hydrothermal method using thio urea as a sulfiding agent.. Then, the materials has been employed for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of furfural (Hemicellulosic model compound) into fuel grade hydrocarbons using Ni promoted MoS2 supported on Laponite in high pressure fixed bed reactor at503 K – 583 ?C under 20 bar H2 pressure. To comprehend the structure activity of the catalysts, the catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, HR-TEM, TGA, DRS-UV–Vis, FI-IR, TPD/TPR. Further, the stability and reusability of the catalysts have been checked thoroughly throughout the entire reaction. The hydrothermal addition of phosphorous into NiMoS has significantly improved the textural properties of both unsupported and supported catalysts by enhancing the extent of sulfidation of nickel. The promotional rate of nickel and the number of (Ni:Mo) slabs have raised up. The structure- activity relationship of the catalysts will be discussed in detail. The recyclability and stability of the catalysts were also excellent under the experimental conditions.
