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Development of Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of Biomass Derived Products to Fuels or Hydrogen


EMSL Project ID
42292

Abstract

The large increase in energy demand by emerging economies and the environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels has led to the focus on renewable energy sources such as biomass. Several thermochemical processes for the conversion of biomass to fuels, chemicals or hydrogen are being currently investigated 1. Production of fuel or chemicals from biomass often require H2 and for the process to be self sustaining, H2 need to be produced from the biomass or its derived products. Hence, the production of H2 from biomass derived products has gained attention in the last two decades. Another related and important research area is the hydrogen production by on-board reforming for portable power sources using compact fuel cells, an area where PNNL is playing a leading role. Compact fuel cell systems that operate on liquid hydrocarbon fuels offer an efficient, lightweight alternative to batteries, thus allowing for greater portability and longer mission lifetime 2.
The focus of the proposed work is the catalyst development for:
1. H2 production by steam reforming of light oxygenates derived from biomass (e.g. methanol, ethanol, acetone, acetic acid).
2. H2 production by aqueous phase reforming of sugars and polyols.
3. Upgrading of bio-oil to bio-fuels
a. Deoxygenation using reducible metal oxides
b. Hydrodeoxygenation using in-situ generated H2

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2010-10-01
End Date
2011-10-03
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Ayman Karim
Institution
Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Team Members

Changjun Liu
Institution
Washington State University

He Zhang
Institution
Washington State University

Yafan Zhao
Institution
Tsinghua University

Junming Sun
Institution
Washington State University

Liang Zhang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Vanessa Dagle
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Donghai Mei
Institution
Tiangong University

Robert Dagle
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

David King
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Yong Wang
Institution
Washington State University

Related Publications

Mei D, AM Karim, and Y Wang. 2011. "Density functional theory study of acetaldehyde hydrodeoxygenation on MoO3." Journal of Physical Chemistry C 115(16):8155-8164. doi:10.1021/jp200011j
Mei D, AM Karim, and Y Wang. 2012. "On the Reaction Mechanism of Acetaldehyde Decomposition on Mo(110) ." ACS Catalysis 2:468-478. doi:10.1021/cs3000039