The project is funded by the Foundation for Polish Science within the programme POWROTY/2016 – 1/5.

 

Quality of life and prosperity of the people in urban areas rely on efficient and sustainable energy production while economic and individual development of citizens depends also on affordable and adaptable transport and energy generation/consumption options [1-8]. The increase in usage of biofuels instead fossil fuels and introduction of technologies for exhaust abatement is expected to result in the highest environmental benefit. Thus developed technologies for controlling the emissions has been directed into novel engine configurations, thermal and catalytic reactors for deep oxidation of pollutants, as well as alternative fuel systems [9-12].

The Waste2Fuel project aims to investigate waste conversion into valuable product, as syngas and biofuels over new intelligent catalytic materials. During proposed research a detailed investigation over different catalysts are planned. A particular emphasis will be placed (i) on the waste-based biofuels, which are currently at the center of the attention as sustainable biofuel of tomorrow, (ii) on the catalysts with lowered amount of noble metals, its activity, long term deactivation and poison resistance; (iii) on the novel nanomaterials preparation routes. The physco-chemical catalyst characterization as well as its activity tuning in selected process, will be the key parts of the proposed investigation, which will be used to gain an increased insight into the fundamental catalyst composition and allow integrate the reaction chemistry resulting process optimization and better waste management in the future.

                                                             

Understanding of surface composition, chemical, electronic and morphological transformations of an catalyst active phase and active sites arrangement and distribution under reaction condition is of the major importance to optimize of the process control, especially taking account catalyst poisoning, site blocking and site deactivation. The novelty and uniqueness of this work rests on a combined approach of catalytic system design and process optimization through variable catalyst loading/composition applying unique methodology.

The proposed research strategy for active material characterization arises from our experience gained during former study of the nanomaterials for the use of the different processes, i.e. catalytic methane CO₂ reforming, CO and NOx removal and soot combustion.  In our previous work it was shown that changing surface morphology of active material and using nanostructured, multicomponent catalysts could be beneficial for overall process efficiency. The uniqueness of this work rests on a combined approach of active phase design and catalyst composition optimization through variable catalyst synthesis, loading and catalytic system modifications.

 

References

[1] G.R. Kale, T.M. Gaikwad, ISRN Thermodynamics, 2014 (2014) Article ID 929676.

[2] T.W. Kerlin, Future Energy: Opportunities and Challenges,ISBN: 978-1-937560-28-7, ISA 2013.

[3] K.D. Oliveira-Vigier, N. Abatzoglou, F. Gitzhofer, Canadian J. Chem. Eng., 83 (2005) 978.

[4] D. Pakharea, J. Spivey, Chem. Soc. Rev., 43 (2014 ) 7813-7837.

[5] W. Wang, Y. Wang, Int. J. Hydr. En., 34 (2009) 5382.

[6] J. Wei, E. Iglesia, J. Catal., 224 (2004) 370-383.

[7] A. Zawadzki, J.D.A. Bellido, A.F. Lucrédio, E.M. Assaf, Fuel Proc. Tech., 128 (2014) 432.

[8] G.A. Olah, A. Goeppert, G.K.S. Prakash, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, 2nd updated and enlarged ed.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, Germany, 2009.

[9] F. Nemry, G. Leduc, I. Mongelli, A. Uihlein, JRC Scientyfic and Technical Reports, ISBN: 978-92-79-07694-7, (2008).

[10] I. S.Pieta, PhD thesis, Universidad de Málaga, Spain, (2011).

[11] http://www3.epa.gov/chp/documents/catalog_chptech_2.pdf.

[12] I. S.Pieta, W. S.Epling, A. Kazmierczuk, P. Lisowski, R. Nowakowski, E. M. Serwicka,Catalysts 2018, 8(3), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8030113, Waste into Fuel—Catalyst and Process Development for MSW Valorisation.

 

 

The project funded by the National Science Centre, Poland within the programme SONATA-2013/11/D/ST 5/03007.

 

The growing concerns related to petroleum-based fuels together with the environmental and health regulation indicate the necessity of developing clean technology for energy production using biofuels or the second generation of alternative fuels. Biofuels have remarkable potential for increased use as an automotive fuel, for electric power generation, and in domestic applications i.e. heating. Additional they are less environmentally harmful than conventional fuels, i.e. it burns with no particulate matters (PM), no sulphur oxides (SOx), and less nitrogen oxides (NOx), but they need a specific pre-processing technology. Steam reforming (SR) is a distinguished process to produce hydrogen on an industrial scale; however, it has one of the highest emissions among the reforming processes. The current steam reforming (SR) investigations are mainly focused on the fuels such as natural gas, methane, methanol, ethanol, and glycerol. More than 80% of the research contributions during the last five years are devoted to develop active, highly durable, and stable catalysts suitable for stationary or automobile application as steam reforming catalysts or so-called “catalytic reformer” for continuous H2 supply.

 

With that respect, the aim of NCN Project Sonata, entitled “The second generation of biofuel and near-future alternative fuels - development of stable, selective and highly active for steam reforming process” is to fabricate a multicomponent intelligent nano-catalytic system capable of steam reforming a bio-fuel such as dimethyl ether (DME) and in situ investigate its performance and correlates its activity with surface composition and active sites distribution. A particular emphasis was placed on (i) the use of the second generation of the bio-fuel considered as a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) near future alternatives and (ii) on the catalysts with a lowered amount of noble metals, their activity, long term deactivation as well as sulfur resistance and catalyst morphological changes.

In our previous work, it was shown that changing the surface morphology of active material and using nanostructured, multicomponent catalysts could be beneficial for overall process efficiency [1-6]. Understanding of surface composition, chemical, electronic and morphological transformations of a catalyst active phase and active sites arrangement and distribution under reaction conditions is of major importance to optimize the process control, especially taking into account catalyst poisoning, site blocking and site deactivation.

 

References

[1] I.S. Pieta, M. García-Diéguez, M.A. Larrubia, L.J. Alemany, W.S. Epling, Catal Today, 207 (2013) 200.

[2] M. García-Diéguez, I.S. Pieta, M.C. Herrera, M.A. Larrubia, L.J. Alemany, J. Catal., 270 (2010) 136.

[3] P. Kowalik, K. Antoniak, M.A. Larrubia, M.C. Herrera, L.J. Alemany, M. Blesznowski, I. S.Pieta ‘Biofuel Steam Reforming Catalyst for Fuel Cell Application’ Catalysis Today 254 (2015) 129–134

[4] R. González-Gil, P. Kowalik, C. Herrera, M.A. Larrubia, I.S. Pieta, L.J. Alemany, ‘Pilot reactor testing in DME-Steam Reforming catalysts for fuel cell applications’ V Iberian Symposium on Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Advanced Batteries. Tenerife, España, July 05-08 2015

[5] R. González-Gil, C. Herrera, M.A. Larrubia, I.S. Pieta, L.J. Alemany, Hydrogen production by steam reforming of DME over Ni-based catalysts modified with vanadium, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 41(2016), pp. 19781-19788

[6] Juan Carlos Colmenares, Ramón Fernando Colmenares Quintero, Izabela S. Pieta, Catalytic dry reforming for biomass-based fuels processing: Progress and future perspective, Energy Technology Energy Technology 2016 4(8), pp. 881-890, Cover.