Safety Aspects for Refineries

First-principles spin-polarized calculations on the adsorption of ethanethiol molecule upon the nonpolar (10$\bar{1}$0) ZnO surface

“…In fact, it is possible to verify that even different cleavages with a Zn and O terminations are suitable ones, as it has been seen in experimental results [12]. Although the adsorption of a wide variety of molecules in this surface have been investigated [7,9,10], there are no, to our knowledge, theoretical evidence of such interplay, even when some experimental results are available [13]. Thus, our article intends to provide an alternative catalyser to the expensive novel surfaces that have been exploited before, by using ZnO surfaces.…”

“…One of the key processes is the refinement of the hydrocarbon feedstocks, named catalytic reforming process. This one is responsible for the basic refining process to upgrade light hydrocarbon feedstocks [7], and includes the use of noble metals, such as platinum, palladium, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and iridium, which are very expensive and are very sensitive to poisoning, specially from sulphur compounds. These metals are usually dispersed on a support, such as silica or alumina, which leads to surface-molecule interactions, which are our main interest.…”

Can We Decarbonise Methanol Production by Direct Electrochemical CO2 Reduction?

“…Methanol has a large global demand, indicated by the increase of global production by over 20 million tonnes over the last 5 years, from 88.4 in 2017 to 106.0 million tonnes in 2022 [22] . Methanol also generates $55 billion in economic activity each year [23] as it acts an intermediate in the synthesis of formaldehyde, [24] methyl tertiary‐butyl ether (MTBE), [25] acetic acid, [26] fuels, such as dimethyl ether (DME) [27] and hydrocarbons [28] . Methanol is also commercially blended with petrol at low levels, around 3 % in Europe, [29] to improve efficiency and emissions of the engine by increasing the octane number.…”