Growing the Bioeconomy through Catalysis: A Review of Recent Advancements in the Production of Fuels and Chemicals from Syngas-Derived Oxygenates

Abstract

Synthesis gas (syngas), composed primarily of H2 and CO, can be produced from fossil resources, municipal solid waste, biogas, and terrestrial biomass and can be converted into oxygenated intermediates such as alcohols and aldehydes through both catalytic and biological routes. These oxygenates serve as precursors for the downstream production of fuels and chemicals. However, since these processes all proceed through syngas regardless of the feedstock, renewable resources do not offer any inherent chemical advantage over fossil resources, and the process economics is largely dictated by (i) the spread between feedstock cost and the cost of petroleum (the dominant existing feedstock for fuel and chemical production) and (ii) the conversion efficiency, in terms of both energy and carbon, normalized by capital costs. Thus, lower-cost renewable feedstocks and improved conversion efficiencies combined with policy incentives could enable increased incorporation of biocontent into fuels and chemicals through syngas-derived oxygenates. To that end, this review assesses recent advancements in heterogeneous catalysis for the downstream conversion of syngas-derived oxygenates (i.e., methanol, ethanol/C2+ alcohols, and aldehydes) to fuels and chemicals, specifically seeking to link how these advancements improve the overall conversion efficiency. In the long term, these catalysis advancements can expand the window of market conditions over which these syngas pathways are economically viable, creating an opportunity to “piggyback” on existing and future natural gas to liquids installations by cofeeding renewable feedstocks.

Polymer‐Based Batteries—Flexible and Thin Energy Storage Systems

“…Syngas obtained from CO 2 as well as hydrogen (derived from the electrolysis utilizing renewable energy) is the basis for further synthesis of different building blocks like olefins or commodity chemicals. [ 15 ]…”

Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Process for Converting Hydrous Bioethanol to Butanol

“…Bioethanol continues to attract extensive R&D activities aimed at improving and enhancing its production from biological sources, mainly waste, and its application as blending/additives stock for fuels and the production of a wide variety of chemicals. This is reflected in several very recent reviews of those activities, including commercial applications [1][2][3][4]. Besides biomass of various kinds, syngas (mixture of CO and H 2 ) is also a feedstock for bioethanol production by biological methods [4].…”

“…This is reflected in several very recent reviews of those activities, including commercial applications [1][2][3][4]. Besides biomass of various kinds, syngas (mixture of CO and H 2 ) is also a feedstock for bioethanol production by biological methods [4]. Production of bioethanol in 2019 reached 110 billion liters worldwide [5], mostly [1] in the US and Brazil.…”

“…Most of the bioethanol is still produced from first generation feedstock [1], although further expansion of bioethanol production would require the implementation of second and even third and fourth generations [1]. Bioethanol is mainly used as blend stock for gasoline [4]. Its addition not only reduces the usage of fossil energy sources but improves the fuel quality by reducing the equivalent fuel consumption and dropping CO 2 , CO, total hydrocarbon and NO X emissions [6,7].…”

“…Green butanol is definitely a very attractive intermediate with wide-range applications [8]. Selected heterogeneous-catalyzed ethanol-to-butanol studies from 2010 to 2017 (a vast number of studies were published over this period and prior to it) were summarized recently [4]. Some were conducted in condensed phase at relatively low temperature (160-250 • C) and high pressure and others in gaseous phase at higher temperature (300-400 • C) and atmospheric pressure.…”