At 09:39 PM 11/17/03 +0000, Mike wrote:
>The acid/base catalysis used for biofuel production looks like 1940's
>chemistry - 55 gallon drums, KOH, etc. The polymer industry,
>specifically polymer polyols to make urethanes used this type of
>chemistry. I know this because I worked at one of the top urethane
>suppliers R&D process development group in the mid 90's. We were
>reacting ethylene oxide and propylene oxide to make polymer polyols,
>similar Sn2 chemistry.
Boy that brings back memories of ethoxylating cellulose back in the
70's,
back before the oil embargo and the price of ethylene oxide tripled.
>Is anyone on the list looking into post-WW II chemistry as a method
>for producing biofuels?
Yup. We're very excited about building a micro plant to use
developments
made in the late 90's in the catalytic synthesis of methanol from H2 and CO.
For those not familiar with the developments, the old way of condensing
methanol on zinc oxide has been around for almost a century now. The
problem with the old route is that the reaction is exothermic, and since
you're reacting a gas on a solid catalyst, the reactor has to have a large
thermal mass or else you're going to burn up your catalyst.
In the late 90's, there was a break through in which they ground up the
catalyst into a powder, and then made it into a slurry with mineral oil.
That created a thermal buffer which allowed the reactor to be more
efficient, and way easier to control. Google "liquid process methanol" for
more info.
Recently, there's been an additional break through developed by Mahajan
in
which two co-catalysts are used to synthesize methanol at 150C and 100 psi,
with the added bonus that the reaction is much more forgiving of having CO2
in the feed gas. This process is so efficient that there's no need to run
the feed gas through the reactor more than once.
Another nifty development, albeit non-catalytic, involves striking an
arc
through a water/carbon slurry and generating a fairly clean form of syngas
[H2 and CO].
Lots of exciting stuff happening.
Walt
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