No abstract

Ethanol dehydration to ethene is mechanistically decoupled from the production of higher hydrocarbons due to complete surface coverage by adsorbed ethanol and diethyl ether (DEE). The production of C3+ hydrocarbons was found to be unaffected by water present in the reaction mixture. Three routes for the production of C3+ hydrocarbons are identified: the dimerization of ethene to butene and two routes involving two different types of surface species categorized as aliphatic and aromatic. Evidence for the different types of species involved in the production of higher hydrocarbons is obtained via isotopic labeling, continuous flow and transient experiments complemented by UV/Vis characterization of the catalyst and ab initio microkinetic modeling.

No abstract

No abstract

Abstract:A novel methodology is presented for more comprehensive catalyst development by maximizing the acquired information rather than relying on statistical methods or tedious, elaborate experimental testing. Two dedicated high-throughput kinetics (HTK) set-ups are employed to achieve this objective, i.e., a screening (HTK-S) and a mechanistic investigation one (HTK-MI). While the former aims at evaluating a wide range of candidate catalysts, a limited selection is more elaborately investigated in the latter one. It allows focusing on an in-depth mechanistic analysis of the reaction mechanism resulting in so called "kinetic" descriptors and on the effect of key catalysts properties, also denoted as "catalyst" descriptors, on the catalyst performance. Both types of descriptors are integrated into a (micro)kinetic model that allows a reliable extrapolation towards operating conditions and catalyst properties beyond those included in the high-throughput testing. A case study on ethanol conversion to hydrocarbons is employed to illustrate the concept behind this methodology. The methodology is believed to be particularly useful for potentially large-scale chemical reactions.