OP-II-3

PP-II-24100 m x 250 μm x 0.5 μm, Agilent 122-10A6 DB-petro) equipped with a FID detectorwith helium being the carrier gas. Several catalysts i.e. KCl/K 2 CO 3 /ZrO 2 , KCl/CeO 2 ,CeO 2 (commercial and in-house synthesized) and CeO 2 -Mg (turnings) have beenstudied. The results revealed an 8-fold enhancement of DEC yield in the presence ofbutylene oxide in comparison to the synthetic method without any water removal(Table 1 entries 3 and 4). The conversion of ethanol and butylene oxide was 14 %and 96 %, respectively, confirming that the presence of a chemical dehydrating agentshifts the equilibrium in favour of DEC formation. The properties of the catalysts wereevaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption, temperature programmeddesorption of CO 2 (TPD) and pyridine adsorption by Fourier Transform InfraredSpectroscopy (FT-IR).Table 1. Catalyst screening results for direct synthesis of DEC from CO 2 and ethanolConditions: 170 °C, 23 h, catalyst calcination temp. 600 °C, 314 mmol ethanol,4.5 MPa initial CO 2 pressure, 1 g catalyst.Entry Catalyst Pressure final (MPa) DEC (mmol)123456aKCl/K 2 CO 3 /ZrO 2 10.4 ―bCeO 2 9.7 0.05cCeO 2 12.6 0.28c,d CeO 2 11.0 2.36c,d,eCeO 2 − Mg (turnings) 10.9 1.99c,dKCl/CeO 2 9.9 0.68a catalyst synthesized as in reference [2]b cerium oxide synthesized (pH adjusted to 10 with NH 4 OH) and calcined at 800 o Cc cerium oxide nanopowder (Sigma-Aldrich)d reaction with 19 mmol of butylene oxidee added 0.5 g of Mg (turnings)In the presentation the reaction network, the properties of the best performingcatalyst and the optimal reaction conditions will be discussed.References[1]. M.A. Pacheco and C.L. Marshall, Energy Fuels, 1997, 11, p. 2.[2]. V. Eta, P. Mäki-Arvela, J.-P. Mikkola, K. Kordas, D. Yu. Murzin and T. Salmi, Progress inHeterogeneous Catalysis (ed. Marmaduke D.L.), Nova Publishers New York, 2008, p. 135.377