Ethylene Production from Bioethanol Dehydration over Bimetallic Alkaline Earth Oxide-Alumina Catalyst

• Main Author: SIM, SIANG LENG
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2013
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8428/1/DISSERTATION_SIM%20SIANG%20LENG_12847_CHEMICAL%20ENGINEERING.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8428/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

This research will be focusing on preliminary development studies on catalyst that can help increase the resistance of catalyst toward coke formation which mainly due to decomposition of carbon. Research found that alkaline earth metal oxide has the basic property that might be able to help increase catalyst’s resistance toward coke formation during the catalytic bioethanol dehydration process. In the research, two kinds of alkaline earth oxide metals are impregnated with nickel on the alumina, which are magnesium oxide and calcium oxide. A preliminary characterization on the catalysts been carried out with Sieve Shaker, FTIR, FESEM, EDX, and TGA. The prepared catalysts have been tested with catalytic dehydration process to find out its effectiveness in converting ethanol to ethylene and the spent catalysts were tested on total carbon content analysis using CHNS. Results show that CAT5 is the most effective catalyst with ethylene conversion of 65.36% and total carbon content or 1.323wt%.