A Low-Temperature, Energy Neutral Process for Preparing Formaldehyde from Neat or Aqueous Methanol
- Technology Benefits
- Lowoperating temperatures (40-90 °C)HighTOFs (exceeding 24,000 h-1)Catalystis air- and moisture- stableLittle-to-no greenhouse gasco-products
- Detailed Technology Description
- A heterogeneous catalytic system for base- and additive-free alcohol reforming that operates at high turnover frequencies under mild conditions with an inexpensive, supported Mo-oxo catalyst that is air- and moisture-stable
- *Abstract
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Northwestern researchers have developed a heterogeneous catalytic system for base- and additive-free alcohol reforming that operates at high turnover frequencies under mild conditions (40-90 °C and 1 atm) with an inexpensive, supported Mo-oxo catalyst that is air- and moisture-stable (see Figure 1). This system is active for aqueous alcohols (up to 90% v/v H2O), exhibits no deactivation over days under these conditions, and is selective towards valuable aldehydes with negligible production of greenhouse gases or fuel cell poisons (CO or CO2), conforming to requirements for formaldehyde production and direct alcohol fuel-cell applications. Turn-over frequencies at current reaction conditions exceed 24,000 h-1 for neat methanol feedstocks, and continuous heating of the catalyst system in 20:80 MeOH:H2O at 90 °C over 5 days shows no decline in catalytic activity, validating the robustness of the catalyst under these operating conditions.
Figure 1. Proposed catalytic cycle for alcohol dehydrogenation
STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
Optimization of continuous flow reaction system is underway. A trickle bed reactor is built with an in-line GC installed for multi gram-scale testing. The new reactor system is scaled-up from the mg-scale, benchtop, semi-batch reactor system previously reported.
- *Inventors
- Tobin Marks*Peter StairTracy LohrMassimiliano DelferroAidan R. Mouat
- *Publications
- Lohr TL, Mouat A, Schweitzer N, STair P, Delferro M and Marks T (2017) Efficient catalytic greenhouse gas-free hydrogen and aldehyde formation from aqueouis alcohol solutions. EnergyEnviron. Sci.. 10: 1558-1562
- Country/Region
- USA
