Abstract
The catalytic dehydration of bio-ethanol is an effective route to transform alcohol to valuable hydrocarbons and chemicals such as olefins and aromatics. There are a variety of reactions that involve, after ethylene is formed as an intermediate, such as oligomerization, aromatization, and alkylation. Products can be, for examples, butylene, benzene, derivatives of benzene, and oxygenates. In this research, cobalt oxide-promoted alumina (Co3O4/??-Al2O3) was examined, aiming to investigate the production of high valuable oxygenate compounds and hydrocarbons in bio-ethanol dehydration. The amount of Co loading was fixed at 5.0 %. The catalysts were characterized using SAA, XRD, and XPS, and tested in a fixed-bed reactor under atmospheric pressure at 500 °C for 8 h. Additionally, the gaseous products were analyzed using an on-line GC, and the oil products were analyzed using GCxGC-MS/TOF. With oxide loading, the amount ofC9 and C + aromatics increased in the oil as ethylene decreased in the gas. The major components in the oil are oxygenate compounds, which consisted of ketones and alcohols such as 2-butanone, 2-pentanone,and phenol, together with hydrocarbons such as benzene, and a trace amount of p-xylene, ethyl-benzene, and naphthalene. The ratio of oxygenates and hydrocarbons was 19:1. Furthermore, XPS result indicated that Co3O4 mainly existed on ??-Al2O3, and after use, some of Co3O4 transformed to CoO.
