Parametric Study of Pt/C-Catalysed Hydrothermal Decarboxylation of Butyric Acid as a Potential Route for Biopropane Production

Iram Razaq, Keith E. Simons, Jude A. Onwudili*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Sustainable fuel-range hydrocarbons can be produced via the catalytic decarboxylation of biomass-derived carboxylic acids without the need for hydrogen addition. In this present study, 5 wt% platinum on carbon (Pt/C) has been found to be an effective catalyst for hydrothermally decarboxylating butyric acid in order to produce mainly propane and carbon dioxide. However, optimisation of the reaction conditions is required to minimise secondary reactions and increase hydrocarbon selectivity towards propane. To do this, reactions using the catalyst with varying parameters such as reaction temperatures, residence times, feedstock loading and bulk catalyst loading were carried out in a batch reactor. The highest yield of propane obtained was 47 wt% (close to the theoretical decarboxylation yield of 50 wt% on butyric acid basis), corresponding to a 96% hydrocarbon selectivity towards propane. The results showed that the optimum parameters to produce the highest yield of propane, from the range investigated, were 0.5 g butyric acid (0.57 M aqueous solution), 1.0 g Pt/C (50 mg Pt content) at 300 °C for 1 h. The reusability of the catalyst was also investigated, which showed little or no loss of catalytic activity after four cycles. This work has shown that Pt/C is a suitable and potentially hydrothermally stable heterogeneous catalyst for making biopropane, a major component of bioLPG, from aqueous butyric acid solutions, which can be sourced from bio-derived feedstocks via acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation.
Original languageEnglish
Article number3316
JournalEnergies
Volume14
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.)

Funding: The authors thank EPSRC, BBSRC and UK Supergen Bioenergy Hub (EP/S000771/1) who co-funded and supported this research. The funding from SHV Energy, The Netherlands, is also gratefully acknowledged.

Keywords

  • hydrothermal decarboxylation
  • butyric acid
  • biopropane
  • bioLPG
  • catalysis
  • Pt/C
  • BioLPG
  • Hydrothermal decarboxylation
  • Biopropane
  • Catalysis
  • Butyric acid

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