DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Computational Investigation of the Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Propanoic Acid over a Cu(111) Surface

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States); Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan (India)
  2. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)

Cu-based alloy catalysts have recently been investigated experimentally for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived organic acids. Here, the HDO of propanoic acid (PAc) has been studied over Cu(111) by mean-field microkinetic modeling based on parameters obtained from first-principles calculations. Models were developed for the gas- and liquid-phase HDO in condensed water and 1,4-dioxane. In agreement with experimental observations, the gas-phase PAc conversion rate is low at 573 K and increases in liquid water by 1 order of magnitude. In all reaction environments, the decarboxylation mechanism is dominant at low hydrogen partial pressures less than 0.1 bar, and the C–COO bond dissociation is the rate-controlling elementary step. This observation contrasts with the rate-controlling step identified over most group VIII metal surfaces, which is the C–OH bond dissociation in the decarbonylation mechanism. At high hydrogen (H2) partial pressures greater than 10 bar, the HDO of PAc produces propionaldehyde that can readsorb and further react through decarbonylation to produce C2 alkane products, which is conceptually different from the low H2 partial pressure scenario. At high H2 partial pressures, the initial hydrogenation at the carbonyl carbon of PAc becomes the rate-controlling elementary step.

Research Organization:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); XSEDE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0007167
OSTI ID:
3001228
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. C Journal Issue: 35 Vol. 125; ISSN 1932-7455; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (78)

Liquid-Phase Catalytic Processing of Biomass-Derived Oxygenated Hydrocarbons to Fuels and Chemicals journal September 2007
Biofuels and Biomass-To-Liquid Fuels in the Biorefinery: Catalytic Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass using Porous Materials journal October 2008
Importance of the Metal-Oxide Interface in Catalysis: In Situ Studies of the Water-Gas Shift Reaction by Ambient-Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy journal April 2013
Mechanistic Role of Water on the Rate and Selectivity of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis on Ruthenium Catalysts journal October 2013
Aqueous-Phase Hydrogenation of Acetic Acid over Transition Metal Catalysts journal August 2010
Acetic acid hydrogenation over supported platinum catalysts journal June 2000
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Reaction kinetics measurements and analysis of reaction pathways for conversions of acetic acid, ethanol, and ethyl acetate over silica-supported Pt journal December 2001
Required catalytic properties for alkane production from carboxylic acids: Hydrodeoxygenation of acetic acid journal November 2013
Catalytic deoxygenation of oleic acid in continuous gas flow for the production of diesel-like hydrocarbons journal May 2011
Aqueous-phase hydrodeoxygenation of propanoic acid over the Ru/ZrO2 and Ru–Mo/ZrO2 catalysts journal January 2012
Selective reduction of acetic acid to ethanol over novel Cu2In/Al2O3 catalyst journal August 2013
Gas-phase, catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of propanoic acid, over supported group VIII noble metals: Metal and support effects journal January 2014
Mechanistic insights into the effects of support on the reaction pathway for aqueous-phase hydrogenation of carboxylic acid over the supported Ru catalysts journal May 2014
Evaluating strategies for catalytic upgrading of pyrolysis oil in liquid phase journal February 2014
Effect of Cu and Sn promotion on the catalytic deoxygenation of model and algal lipids to fuel-like hydrocarbons over supported Ni catalysts journal August 2016
Insights into the preference of CHx(x=1–3) formation from CO hydrogenation on Cu(111) surface journal January 2013
Insights into the mechanism of acetic acid hydrogenation to ethanol on Cu(111) surface journal August 2017
Influence of fatty acid composition of raw materials on biodiesel properties journal January 2009
Chain growth mechanism on bimetallic surfaces for higher alcohol synthesis from syngas journal February 2015
Effect of Cu promotion on cracking and methanation during the Ni-catalyzed deoxygenation of waste lipids and hemp seed oil to fuel-like hydrocarbons journal March 2018
An NSF perspective on next generation hydrocarbon biorefineries journal September 2010
Dependence of biodiesel fuel properties on the structure of fatty acid alkyl esters journal June 2005
Microkinetic modeling of the decarboxylation and decarbonylation of propanoic acid over Pd(111) model surfaces based on parameters obtained from first principles journal September 2013
Insights into the mechanism of ethanol formation from syngas on Cu and an expanded prediction of improved Cu-based catalyst journal September 2013
Theoretical investigation of the decarboxylation and decarbonylation mechanism of propanoic acid over a Ru(0 0 0 1) model surface journal April 2015
Mechanistic insights on C O and C C bond activation and hydrogen insertion during acetic acid hydrogenation catalyzed by ruthenium clusters in aqueous medium journal August 2016
Unraveling the mechanism of the hydrodeoxygenation of propionic acid over a Pt (1 1 1) surface in vapor and liquid phases journal January 2020
Investigation of the reaction mechanism of the hydrodeoxygenation of propionic acid over a Rh(1 1 1) surface: A first principles study journal November 2020
Insight into the mechanism and possibility of ethanol formation from syngas on Cu(100) surface journal August 2015
The selectivity and activity of catalyst for CO hydrogenation to methanol and hydrocarbon: A comparative study on Cu, Co and Ni surfaces journal March 2016
A Method for Obtaining Liquid–Solid Adsorption Rates from Molecular Dynamics Simulations: Applied to Methanol on Pt(111) in H 2 O journal March 2020
Theoretical Investigation of Solvent Effects on the Hydrodeoxygenation of Propionic Acid over a Ni(111) Catalyst Model journal July 2020
Solvation Effects in the Hydrodeoxygenation of Propanoic Acid over a Model Pd(211) Catalyst journal February 2016
Microscopic View of the Active Sites for Selective Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid on Cu(111) journal November 2015
Key Role of Surface Hydroxyl Groups in C–O Activation during Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis journal May 2016
Role of Surface Hydroxyl Species in Copper-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of Ketones journal July 2018
Synthesis of Transportation Fuels from Biomass: Chemistry, Catalysts, and Engineering journal September 2006
Mechanism of Methanol Synthesis on Cu through CO 2 and CO Hydrogenation journal February 2011
Theoretical Analysis of Transition-Metal Catalysts for Formic Acid Decomposition journal March 2014
Kinetics of Aqueous-Phase Hydrogenation of Organic Acids and Their Mixtures over Carbon Supported Ruthenium Catalyst journal May 2007
Conductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents: A New Approach to the Quantitative Calculation of Solvation Phenomena journal February 1995
A Combined Kinetic−Quantum Mechanical Model for Assessment of Catalytic Cycles:  Application to Cross-Coupling and Heck Reactions journal March 2006
Size and Support Effects for the Water–Gas Shift Catalysis over Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Model Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 journal February 2012
Degree of Rate Control: How Much the Energies of Intermediates and Transition States Control Rates journal June 2009
Direct Identification of Active Surface Species for the Water–Gas Shift Reaction on a Gold–Ceria Catalyst journal February 2019
Experimental and DFT Studies of the Conversion of Ethanol and Acetic Acid on PtSn-Based Catalysts journal February 2005
Theoretical Study of Methanol Synthesis from CO 2 Hydrogenation on Metal-Doped Cu(111) Surfaces journal December 2011
Theoretical Investigation of the Reaction Mechanism of the Decarboxylation and Decarbonylation of Propanoic Acid on Pd(111) Model Surfaces journal June 2012
New Implicit Solvation Scheme for Solid Surfaces journal October 2012
First-Principles Study of C 2 Oxygenates Synthesis Directly from Syngas over CoCu Bimetallic Catalysts journal December 2014
Effect of Palladium Surface Structure on the Hydrodeoxygenation of Propanoic Acid: Identification of Active Sites journal January 2015
Kinetic-Quantum Chemical Model for Catalytic Cycles: The Haber−Bosch Process and the Effect of Reagent Concentration journal July 2008
Refinement and Parametrization of COSMO-RS journal June 1998
Catalytic routes for the conversion of biomass into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels journal January 2011
Solvent effects on the hydrodeoxygenation of propanoic acid over Pd(111) model surfaces journal January 2014
Biomass feedstocks for renewable fuel production: a review of the impacts of feedstock and pretreatment on the yield and product distribution of fast pyrolysis bio-oils and vapors journal January 2014
Effects of hydrogen and water on the activity and selectivity of acetic acid hydrogenation on ruthenium journal January 2014
Catalytic activity of transition metal doped Cu(111) surfaces for ethanol synthesis from acetic acid hydrogenation: a DFT study journal January 2017
Participation of interfacial hydroxyl groups in the water-gas shift reaction over Au/MgO catalysts journal January 2017
Biofuels, greenhouse gases and climate change. A review journal January 2011
Improved tangent estimate in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths and saddle points journal December 2000
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
Comparison of methods for finding saddle points without knowledge of the final states journal November 2004
Efficient methods for finding transition states in chemical reactions: Comparison of improved dimer method and partitioned rational function optimization method journal December 2005
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
Accurate and simple density functional for the electronic exchange energy: Generalized gradient approximation journal June 1986
Accurate and simple analytic representation of the electron-gas correlation energy journal June 1992
Ab initiomolecular dynamics for liquid metals journal January 1993
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Lattice parameters, densities, expansion coefficients and perfection of structure of Cu and of Cu–In α phase journal November 1969
Future Refining Catalysis - Introduction of Biomass Feedstocks journal January 2008
An adsorption isotherm of multi-site occupancy model for homogeneous surface. journal January 1984
Acetic acid hydroconversion over mono- and bimetallic indium doped catalysts supported on alumina and silicas of various textures journal January 2014
Novel Cu and Cu2In/aluminosilicate type catalysts for the reduction of biomass-derived volatile fatty acids to alcohols journal December 2012
Continuous Catalytic Deoxygenation of Waste Free Fatty Acid-Based Feeds to Fuel-Like Hydrocarbons Over a Supported Ni-Cu Catalyst journal January 2019