Catalytic activity of zeolite Hβ for the preparation of fuels’ additives: Its product distribution and scale up calculation for the biofuel formation in a microwave assisted batch reactor

Abstract

Viability for oxo pentanoate, pentanoate and butanediaoate production as potential biofuel produced from carboxylic acid by acid hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass has been identified. Carboxylic acids like butanedioic acid (BA), 4-oxo pentanoic acid (oPA) and pentanoic acid (PA) were reacted with alcohols like primary alcohol as Methanol (MeOH), Ethanol (EtOH) and secondary alcohol as 2-Propanol (2-PrOH) using Microwave Irradiation (MWI). H2SO4 as homogeneous catalyst and Hβ as solid acid catalyst were studied to establish efficient esterification reactions with variation in the operating conditions (reaction time, feed ratio, catalyst dosage, microwave power, reaction temperature, type of catalyst, etc.). The comparison was established with conventional as well as MWI process with the use parent zeolite Hβ and desilicated Hβ (D-Hβ) to produce respective esters. Further Hβ and D-Hβ have been analysed by different characteristics for the solid catalyst. Acidity of zeolite β by Ammonia temperature program desorption (NH3-TPD), average particle size by DLS, SEM & TEM, framework confirmation by XRD & FTIR, while surface area, pore size and pore volume were measured by BET method. This study was to establish efficient selectivity and conversion analysis of the desired biofuels’ additives with use of MWI, a cleaner production technique. It has advantages of high selectivity, good conversion, short reaction time and less separation cost. Further to apply conversion & selectivities’ analysis and to scale up the reaction, batch reactor model equation is developed with MWI process based on the reaction constant and concentration of the stoichiometric reactants.