Ethanol Reactions over FeMoO Using Low O₂/Ethanol Molar Ratio: Reaction Network and Kinetics.

Area of Science:

• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Chemical reaction engineering
• Sustainable chemistry

Background:

• Ethanol valorization is crucial for sustainable chemical production.
• Understanding reaction pathways and kinetics is key to optimizing catalytic processes.
• Iron-molybdenum oxide catalysts are investigated for ethanol conversion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate ethanol conversion over an iron-molybdenum oxide catalyst.
• To elucidate dominant reaction pathways and kinetics at high ethanol partial pressures.
• To assess catalyst performance for acetaldehyde production.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a Berty internal recycling reactor for ethanol conversion experiments.
• Employed low oxygen/ethanol molar ratios (0.0 and 0.05).
• Characterized the catalyst and developed a kinetic model fitted to experimental data.

Main Results:

• Identified dehydrogenation, dehydration, and ethylene hydrogenation as significant reactions.
• Catalyst characterization confirmed the formation of β-FeMoO4 phase with improved physical properties.
• Kinetic parameters (constants, activation energies) were estimated for the reaction network.

Conclusions:

• The iron-molybdenum oxide catalyst showed low selectivity for acetaldehyde under studied conditions.
• An oxygen-distributed fed reactor is not feasible with this catalyst at present.
• Further research is needed to optimize conditions for enhanced acetaldehyde production.