2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium
Mesoporous microspherical nickel oxide catalysts for the deoxygenation of lipid biomass to diesel range hydrocarbons
Mesoporous microspherical nickel oxide catalysts for the deoxygenation of lipid biomass to diesel range hydrocarbons
PROJECT NUMBER: 17 | AUTHOR: Courtney Smoljan​, Chemical and Biological Engineering
MENTOR: Moises Carreon, Chemical and Biological Engineering
ABSTRACT
With growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the production of environmentally friendly fuel sources has been a significant field of research in the past years. Through decarboxylation reactions of lipid-based biomass over a noble metal catalyst, fuel-grade hydrocarbons can be produced. There have been growing reports of the use of non-noble metal porous catalysts for this reaction. Herein, we report the synthesis of mesoporous nickel oxide catalyst by surfactant assisted self-assembly to be used in the deoxygenation of oleic acid to heptadecane. Mesoporous materials are highly desirable for use in catalysis due to their large pore sizes, which alleviate mass transport limitations, and their high surface areas, which give the potential for more active sites. To assess the effect of pore size on the product distribution, two structure directing agents, Pluronic P123 and CTAB, were employed during synthesis. The catalysts synthesized with P123 yielded 63% heptadecane, displaying three times the yield to heptadecane as compared to commercial NiO. Catalysts synthesized with CTAB yielded nearly 12% heptadecane. The recyclability of the P123 catalyst was also assessed. The catalysts were characterized with powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and nitrogen physisorption isotherms to determine pore size and crystallinity. The coke accumulation on the spent catalysts was quantified with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
PRESENTATION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Courtney Smoljan will graduate this August with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with an Honors Research Specialty. She has worked in Professor Moises Carreon’s group since 2018, studying heterogeneous catalysis for upgrading biomass-derived molecules. Courtney is currently interning at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where she is working on improving the durability of materials used in water electrolyzers. This fall, she begins her graduate studies at Northwestern University in the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program.
Very relevant and interesting project! Will you be continuing research in this field during your Ph.D.? Also, what are the next steps that would allow this to be applied on a large scale in transportation?
Very interesting — thanks, Courtney! I have a couple of questions:
1) It looks like you have great activity with oleic acid –> heptadecane conversion. Do you know what the remainder of the oleic acid is converted into (or does it persist as unreacted starting material)? Is the decarboxylation or alkene reduction rate limiting?
2) Have you looked at other biologically relevant fatty acids to see if there is a chain-length dependence on the catalysis?
3) How you do you anticipate how other compounds present in a biomass feedstock will affect the catalysis?
Nice job, and always great to see a UG-authored paper!