CATSYN-BIOFUEL

The demand for ultra-clean alternative fuels produced from biomass has been rapidly growing around the world. Dimethyl ether is one of most promising environmentally optimized alternatives to the conventional fossil fuels. The fundamental target of this research project deals with the design of novel nano-scale tailored hierarchical catalytic architectures and processes for the sustainable direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from synthesis gas (CO + nH2) generated via gasification of biomass. The application of the new hybrid hierarchical catalysts on the basis of metal and metal sulfide nanoparticles and novel microporous and mesoporous catalytic materials will provide understanding in the field of size and shape effects of the metal active phases, confinement, support porosity and acidity on the activity and selectivity towards direct synthesis of dimethyl ether. The catalytic performance and stability will be investigated and optimized in the presence of impurities typical of biosyngas. Introduction of thermal conductive support, i.e. silicon carbide (SiC), is extremely helpful to reduce hot spot formation within the catalyst bed during direct DME synthesis which is a highly exothermic reaction. Intensification of direct DME synthesis using microstructured reactors and macroscopic shaping, by using a host matrix from alveolar silicon carbide with high thermal conductivity, appropriate porosity, effective surface area and acidity will be addressed with the final goal of developing novel active catalytic system.