Influence of surface acidity/basicity of selected metal oxide catalysts and reaction atmospheres on the ketonisation of propionic acid to produce 3-pentanone as a liquid biofuel precursor

Abstract

Defossilisation of the transportation sector can be achieved via the conversion of renewable biomass into drop-in liquid hydrocarbon-rich fuels. Bio-oils from the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass contain significant proportion of carboxylic acids, which can be upgraded to liquid fuel range precursors via C-C coupling e.g. via ketonisation. In this present study, ZrO2, SiO2, and SiO2–ZrO2 were synthesised and used for the ketonisation of propionic acid to 3-pentanone, in a stirred 100 mL batch reactor between 300 ᵒC and 400 ᵒC under 10 bar pressure of nitrogen or hydrogen. The order of ketonisation activity by the catalysts was: ZrO2 > SiO2–ZrO2 > SiO2 under both nitrogen and hydrogen atmospheres, based on their different surface acidity/basicity properties. Under nitrogen, ZrO2 catalyst showed high activity and selectivity towards 3-pentanone with the highest yield of 70.3% at 350 ᵒC. Interestingly, the catalyst gave 12.2% higher yield of 3-pentanone under hydrogen than under nitrogen. This indicated positive influence of hydrogen towards the ketonisation reaction, possibly by preventing formation of intermediates and thus enhancing catalyst stability. Preliminary tests involving mixtures of propionic acid, and a bio-oil sample shows that ZrO2 was still selective toward ketonisation in the presence of other classes of compounds in bio-oils.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2025.123386
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI)
Aston University (General)
Funding Information: This work was supported by Innovate UK Energy Catalyst Round 8: Clean Energy - Experimental Development (Project Number 75521) and Innovate UK Energy Catalyst Round 9 – Mid Stage (Project Number 10047783).
Additional Information: Copyright © 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This accepted manuscript version is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication ISSN: 1879-0682
Last Modified: 07 May 2025 07:21
Date Deposited: 06 May 2025 15:40
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.sci ... 0481?via%3Dihub (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2025-05-06
Published Online Date: 2025-05-06
Accepted Date: 2025-05-05
Authors: Hart, Abarasi
Patel, Himanshu
Yildirir, Eyup
Onwudili, Jude (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5355-9970)

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