ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

A two-step strategy for the selective conversion of ethanol to propene and hydrogen

Yuri Pyatnitsky, Lidiia Dolgikh, Liubov Senchylo, Larissa Stara, and Peter Strizhak

L.V. Pisarzhevskii Institute of Physical Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

E-mail: Pyatnitskii.Y.I@nas.gov.ua

Received: 10 April 2021  Accepted: 24 June 2021

Abstract:

Simultaneous production of propene and hydrogen from ethanol is a promising way of a renewable feedstock conversion into value-added products. Conventional reaction schemes of the direct one-step catalytic conversion of ethanol into propene include the reaction of the isopropanol dehydration to propene. However, the dehydration ability of a catalyst inevitably gives rise to the ethanol dehydration to ethene that diminishes the propene yield. To avoid ethanol dehydration to ethene, the two-step process is composed of the ethanol conversion to acetone in the first step and the acetone conversion to propene in the second step. The thermodynamic analysis of the known reaction pathways for the ethanol conversion to propene shows that a 74.6% yield of propene can be achieved even at a low temperature of 200 °C. According to the literature data, possible catalysts can be Cu/La₂Zr₂O₇ or Fe₃O₄ for the first step, and the mixed Ag–In/SiO₂ and K₃PW₁₂O₄₀ catalyst for the second step. We speculate that the propene yield may reach 72% using these catalysts in the two-step process.

Keywords: Acetone; Catalyst; Ethanol; Hydrogen; Propene

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01758-w

Chemical Papers 75 (11) 5773–5779 (2021)