Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Moox Reducibility On Its Activity For Anisole Hydrodeoxygenation, Chantal Walker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a process for upgrading crude bio-oil as it has a high oxygen content which causes several undesirable properties. Current methods for HDO use sulfided NiMo and CoMo or supported noble metal catalysts which hydrogenate aromatic rings, leading to less valuable products and increasing the hydrogen consumption. Using 10 wt. % MoO3 supported on ZrO2, TiO2, γ-Al2O3, SiO2 and CeO2, we investigated the atmospheric HDO of anisole, a model compound, at 350 °C. All catalysts achieved C – O bond cleavage, preserving the aromatic ring. In situ UV-Vis spectroscopy showed a peak corresponding to intervalence charge transfer …

Fluidization Characteristics Of Group C+ Particles: Fine Powder With Nanoparticle Modulation, Yandaizi Zhou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Geldart Group C particles become increasingly attractive in industry because of their small particle sizes and large specific surface areas. The main challenge in the flow and fluidization of Geldart Group C particles is their cohesive nature due to strong interparticle forces. The “nanoparticle modulation” technique was adopted to reduce the interparticle forces of Group C particles and thus significantly improved their flow and fluidization quality. Group C⁺ particles, a new type of fine particles with drastically reduced or insignificant interparticle forces, were created using the nano-modulation technique.

Fundamental studies provided a comprehensive understanding of the fluidization quality of …

Thermo-Catalytic Decarboxylation Of Fatty Acids And Real-World Derivatives Towards Liquid Fuels, Shaun J. Fraser

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The production of green diesel through waste fats and oils is a promising route to producing renewable transportation fuels that are energy dense, have low oxygen content, low nitrogen content, and possess excellent cold flow properties. However, producing green diesel can be expensive, as most methods use expensive noble metals catalysts such as platinum or palladium, use expensive hydrogen gas, and/or use pyrolysis and thermal cracking to reduce hydrocarbon chain length and lose energetic carbon-hydrogen bonds. This thesis studies the continuous thermo-catalytic decarboxylation of fatty acids and their derivatives to create liquid transportation fuels using an inexpensive MoO_x/Al …

Bubble Dynamics In A Sand Fluidized Bed In The Presence Of Biomass Pellets, Nicolas Torres Brauer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Given the worldwide concerns regarding fossil fuel availability, global warming, water, and air pollution and economy needs, there is an urgent requirement to develop and implement alternative energies. Biomass gasification can consume vegetal waste to produce syngas, which is a mix of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. When biomass gasification is carried out in a fluidized bed, the process is highly efficient.

The experimental study of the present Ph.D. dissertation took place in a Plexiglas 0.44 m diameter unit, equipped with a CREC Optiprobe system and a video camera. The unit was filled with 200-900 µm sand particles and …

Improvement Of Fluidization Ability For Group A Powders By Fine Powder Additives, Xiaowei Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Group A powders are widely utilized in the industry because of the great quality of fluidization, which can be affected by the fine content. This project investigates the feasibility that employing the fine powders (≤ 20 μm) as additives to further improve the fluidization ability of Group A powders. Three additives, Coal-15, GB-6, and SiO₂-5 are added into FCC-76, based on various volume fractions. The minimum fluidization velocity (U_mf), bed expansion ratio (BER), and dense phase expansion ratio (DER) are tested to evaluate the quality of fluidization. Coal-15 can slightly improve the fluidization quality. High …