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Title: Scale-Up Studies for the Dehydration of C4+ Alcohols into Drop-In Diesel Fuel

Journal Article · · Energy and Fuels
 [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); University of Wisconsin - Madison
  2. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
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Herein, we demonstrate the production of liter quantities of drop-in diesel-range ethers from biomass-derived alcohols. We report scale-up resultsfor the dehydration of a mixture of C4+ alcohols using powder and pellet zeolite Ycatalyst in continuous flow and batch reactors. The activity of zeolite Y decreaseswith the introduction of an alumina binder. Large alcohols, as well as branchedand secondary alcohols, increase the coke content over the pellet Y catalyst. Thepellet formulation had lower carbon balances and selectivity to C10+ ethers,suggesting that the pellet formulation increases alcohol absorption and cokeproduction. Crushing the pellet Y catalyst to smaller particle sizes does notrecover the activity of zeolite Y in its powder form. Cold flow experiments showthat particle agglomeration contributes to pressure buildup in the continuous flowreactor. C10+ ether blends can be produced in batch reactors at high alcohol conversion regimes. One liter of a diesel #2 blend wasproduced by scaling up this reaction. The final blend consists of a substantial portion of C10+ ethers (63.7 wt %), followed by heavyunknown products (27.4 wt %). Furthermore, the final alcohol and butyl ether concentration values were 7.3 and 1.5 wt %, respectively. Theblendstock reported in this paper can satisfy diesel #2 ASTM standards for density, cloud point, flashpoint, and cetane number.

Research Organization:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0008480
OSTI ID:
2460589
Journal Information:
Energy and Fuels, Journal Name: Energy and Fuels Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 38; ISSN 0887-0624
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (18)

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Production, fuel properties and combustion testing of an iso-olefins blendstock for modern vehicles journal February 2022
Investigating the potential of a higher reactivity fuel to achieve faster heat-up of aftertreatment systems journal October 2024
Dehydration of 1-Octadecanol over H-BEA: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study journal January 2016
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Structural characterization of 13 C-enriched humins and alkali-treated 13 C humins by 2D solid-state NMR journal January 2015
Catalytic synthesis of distillate-range ethers and olefins from ethanol through Guerbet coupling and etherification journal January 2019
Ethanol to diesel: a sustainable alternative for the heavy-duty transportation sector journal January 2023
Production of drop-in biodiesel blendstocks via competitive acid-catalyzed dehydration reactions using ethanol oligomerization products journal January 2024
Kinetics of De-coking of Spent Reforming Catalyst journal March 2011

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Alcohols
Catalysts
Coke
Granular materials
Zeolites