Aminu K Rabiu
ty of science and technology Aliero, Nigeria.
Title: Spherical mesoporous silica supported catalysts for hydrodeoxygenations of lignin biomass to hydrocarbon fuels
Biography
Biography: Aminu K Rabiu
Abstract
The need for clean bioenergy is tremendously increasing due to population increase as well as negative effect of fossil derived fuel, which includes its non-renewability and greenhouse gas (carbon dioxides) emission. In this regard, lignin biomass has been considered as a promising renewable feedstock toward fuel and chemical transformations particularly through hydrodeoxygenation pathway. In this work, catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of syringyl (as lignin model compounds) to saturated hydrocarbon was studied. To actualize this, spherical mesoporous support was first synthesized by hydrothermal method and physico-chemically characterized by XRD, FTIR, BET surface area, FESEM and UV Visible spectrophotometer. The mesoporous support was then impregnated with nickel nitrate, dried and calcined to obtained highly dispersed supported nickel oxide species as revealed by XRD, BET surface area, FESEM and TPR. The obtained catalyst was reduced and its reducibility was investigated by XPS analysis. Activity study was conducted in high-pressure stainless steels autoclave at 250 oC, 80 bar and 5 hrs. reaction time. The result showed the formation of Ti-MCM-41 with tetrahedral coordination and Ni/Ti-MCM-41 catalysts. The results of the activity studies indicate maximum conversion of 90.56% with good selectivity to saturated hydrocarbons of 60.82%, which indicates its potential for hydrodeoxygenation of Lignin biomass to saturated hydrocarbon molecules suitable as transportation fuel.