Effect of catalyst surface chemistry and metal promotion on the liquid-phase ethanol condensation to higher alcohols

Abstract

The production of higher alcohols (C4+) via ethanol liquid-phase condensation is studied in this work, screening catalysts with different acid/base properties, observing similarities but also relevant differences with respect to gas-phase reactions in the gas phase. The mechanistic analysis demonstrates the relevance of acidity, mainly to promote the dehydrogenation steps. In the same way, side reactions and hydrogenations have less relevance than in gas-phase, promoting the condensations and, subsequently, obtaining heavy compounds. The highest alcohol selectivity is reached with MgAl (2/1), with more than 79% of C4+ selectivity, but the activity of this material is conditioned by the low conversion obtained. The presence of water reduces the activity because of a competitive adsorption on the catalytic sites whereas the activity increases significantly when using bifunctional catalysts. The best results, obtained with 1% Cu/MgAl (2/1), allow rising the conversion up to more than 460% respect to the parent mixed oxide, with almost 44% of the alcohol mixture enriched in heavy compounds, mainly C6 and C8.