CATALYST AND PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF BIOBTX FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH

• Main Author: Akbar Sumeru, Husain
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/42466
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Production of BioBTX from Empty Fruit Bunch is becoming an interesting alternative for chemicals production from biomass. The role of hydrogen source and catalyst support in BioBTX production were studied in presence of Nickel- Molybdenum catalyst based using hydrothermal reactor. This study utilize formic acid in ethanol (FA-EtOH) and Isopropil alcohol (IPA) as hydrogen transfer agent. Particularly for IPA, the aforementioned substances can be used both as solvent and reactant (sacrificial alcohol). Two types of catalyst support that were studied are H-Al-? as Brønsted acid support base and Sn-? as Lewis acid support base. The role of hydrogen source and catalyst performance were measured by using mass balance and GC-MS. The catalysts sample were characterized using XRD, H2-TPR and NH3-TPD. The experiments were conducted at 300 oC within an hour for each hydrogen source and catalyst run. The reaction temperature was varied at 225 oC, 255 oC and 300 oC while reaction time was varied from 1 to 2 hour(s). FA-EtOH system has advantage compared to IPA system which is has lower selectivity of solvent etherification over both NiMo/H-Al-? and NiMo/Sn-?. On the catalyst role, NiMo/H- ? is more active compared to NiMo/Sn- ? for both FA-EtOH and IPA systems. The highest guaiacol conversion was achieved using NiMo/H- ? in IPA system which is 51,08% and followed by in FA-EtOH system which is 48,66% although IPA system favored C-alkylation of aromatic ring. For that reason, FA-EtOH system is better than IPA system in term of lignin model compound conversion and product selectivity. The effect of temperature experiment using FA-EtOH system shows the declining of guaiacol conversion from 48,66% at 300 oC to 24,64% at 255 oC. Guaiacol reaction doesn’t occur at 225 oC. Toluene was detected at 255 oC within 2 hour in FA-EtOH using NiMo/H-Al-? catalyst