Engineering Commons^™

Solid Acid Catalyzed Dehydration Reactions Of Biomass-Derived Alcohols, Mackenzie Todd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Concerns around climate change and the use of fossil resources contributing to increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere has motivated transitions to use biomass resources for the production of specialty chemicals and fuels, in hopes of creating a more cyclical use of carbon. The work presented here focuses on two different aspects of catalytic upgrading of biomass-derived platform molecules using heterogeneous acid catalysts. First, we use an interdisciplinary and iterative approach to process development for producing a diesel fuel additive from pyrolysis oils of woody biomass. We use fuel property calculations to define measures of success in chemical upgrading …

Catalytic Ring Opening Of Mono- And Bicyclic Compounds For The Production Of Renewable Diesel And Jet Fuel, Matthew J. Kline

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thermal DeOxygenation (TDO) is a process that converts organic acids produced from cellulose hydrolysis and dehydration into a low-oxygen bio-oil containing substituted naphthene compounds. The high aromatic content is desirable for gasoline fractions, but middle distillates such as diesel and jet fuel require upgrading via hydrogenation and ring opening to achieve better combustion characteristics. Previous research has demonstrated that TDO oil could be hydrogenated over high-surface-area nickel catalysts to improve the combustion characteristics, but the cetane number was still below the specifications.

Multiple supported catalysts were synthesized by ion exchange and incipient wetness impregnation, and the catalysts were characterized by …

Reaction Kinetics And Mechanism Investigations Of Renewable Chemicals Production From Biomass, Hussein Talib Abdulrazzaq

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of the technologies and the improved processes for the production of high value bio-based chemicals is one of the most important challenges at the present time. This new movement is not only important from an environmental perspective, but also it is a profitable approach to provide affordable and efficient processes. Therefore, the chemical catalytic upgrading processes over various homogenous and heterogeneous catalysis could be an outstanding modification to upgrade biomass-derived platform molecule to high value applications. In this dissertation, we highlight our recent progress in developing new chemistries and processes for upgrading biomass-derived molecules and address the challenges …