Authors:

Matthew C. Gerona

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

Professor:

Not specified

About Paper:

U.S. shale natural gas reserves are now easily accessible due to the advancement of fracking. These reserves contain significant amounts of natural gas liquids. Due to its intrinsic property of containing lesser impurities compared to other fossil fuels, natural gas has potential to serve as a transition fuel for sustainable energy. The objective is to find new heterogeneous catalyst technology that can convert light olefins to transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel.  It has previously been shown that gallium, zinc, and alumina convert ethylene and propylene to higher molecular weight hydrocarbons through a Lewis acid mechanism. It is hypothesized that other Lewis acid transition and post-transition metals would also be active. In this study, it is shown that single-site indium ions supported on alumina convert olefins to fuel range hydrocarbons. The catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and evaluated for the conversion of olefins to higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Compared to alumina, single-site indium on alumina has a much higher rate of reaction and makes different products. As the percent of indium in the catalyst increases, propylene conversion increases. The results confirm that single-site indium on alumina is catalytic for conversion of olefins to higher molecular weight. The performance of the catalyst will be evaluated to determine reaction kinetics and products under a variety of process conditions of varying temperature and pressure. In addition, the catalyst will be fully characterized to determine if it is a Lewis acid site.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Matthew C. Gerona