Theory And Experimental Research On Ethylene Glycol And Liquid Fuels Synthesis From Syngas

There is abundant reserves of biomass in China and it's a new line of green synthesis that biomass gasification first and then syn-gas synthesis to liquid and chemicals. Methanol, ethanol is a conventional liquid fuel, which can be used for automobile engine; ethylene glycol (EG) is a important chemical, which can be used for surfactant, dynamite and so on. Converting biomass into methanol, ethanol and EG is accepted as a feasible and viable green route to obtain renewable liquid fuels and chemicalsFirstly, thermodynamic simulation of methanol synthesis from biomass-derived syngas was presented based on Aspen Plus. In the thermodynamic analysis of hydrogenation of CO and CO2, the equilibrium product compositions were investigated with different reaction parameters such as temperature, reactor pressure, the H2 to (CO+CO2) mole ratio and CO2 to CO mole ratio. Meanwhile, the influences of these parameters on CO and CO2 conversion and methanol yield were investigated. The results showed that lower temperature and higher pressure were beneficial to the synthesis of methanol and increasing the mole ratio of H2 to (CO+CO2) or reducing the CO2 to CO mole ratio can also improve the yield of methanol.Secondly, quantum chemical simulation of CO adsorption in the Cu cluster based on Gaussian software and the reaction pathways of the synthesis of CO and H2 to methanol has been built. Simulation results show that CO is C terminal connected transition metal atoms. The first step of CO hydrogenation is CO adsorbed inserts into the hydroxyl absorbed. And this step has maximum energy barrier. The hydroxyl adsorbed on the metal surface act as a catalyst in the reaction, and the overall reaction is an exothermic reaction.Finally, we made active experiment and characterization to the Cu-Zn/SiO2 catalysts followed this paper. Active experiment in different temperature, pressure, H2/DMO mole ratio, and Zn wt% analyses the variation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) conversion, ethanol selectivity, EG selectivity and methyl glycolate (MG) selectivity. Appropriate temperature, pressure and H2/DMO mole ratio are beneficial for increase ethanol and EG selectivity. Catalyst with 5% Zn is preparation for EG,10% for ethanol, and 15% for MG. charactering results show that CuO particles were homogeneously dispersed on the support SiO2, and ZnO particles were too small too be detected. The catalyst reduction process mainly reduced directly from Cu2+ to Cu0. With the increase of Zn wt%, the catalyst surface area decreased and the pore volume and average pore size increased.