Zeolitic catalytic conversion of alochols to hydrocarbons

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9533921-B2
Application number	US-201414293248-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2014
Priority date	Jun 15, 2011
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A method for converting an alcohol to a hydrocarbon, the method comprising contacting said alcohol with a metal-loaded zeolite catalyst at a temperature of at least 100° C. and up to 550° C., wherein said alcohol can be produced by a fermentation process, said metal is a positively-charged metal ion, and said metal-loaded zeolite catalyst is catalytically active for converting said alcohol to said hydrocarbon.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for converting an alcohol to a hydrocarbon product containing comprising no more than 20% C 2 hydrocarbon compounds, the method comprising contacting said alcohol with a vanadium-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst at a temperature of at least 250° C. and up to 350° C. and at a liquid hourly space velocity of up to 5 hr −1 , wherein said alcohol can be produced by a fermentation process and is selected from ethanol, butanol, isobutanol, or combination thereof and is a component of an aqueous solution in a concentration of no more than about 20%.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said alcohol comprises ethanol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said concentration is no more than about 10%.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said alcohol is produced by a fermentation process.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said alcohol is a component of a fermentation stream when contacted with said vanadium-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said vanadium-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst comprises V-ZSM5.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said hydrocarbon product is a mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, wherein said mixture is useful as a fuel or as a blendstock component of a fuel.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said mixture of hydrocarbon compounds is comprised of hydrocarbon compounds containing at least four carbon atoms.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said mixture of hydrocarbon compounds substantially corresponds to a petrochemical fraction.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is integrated with a fermentation process, wherein said fermentation process produces said alcohol as a component of a fermentation stream, and said fermentation stream is contacted with said vanadium-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is integrated with a biomass reactor that includes a fermentation process, wherein said fermentation process produces said alcohol as a component of a fermentation stream, and said fermentation stream is contacted with said vanadium-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein said method further comprises distilling said mixture of hydrocarbon compounds to obtain a fraction of said mixture of hydrocarbon compounds.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said alcohol is produced from a biomass source.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said biomass source comprises lignocellulosic matter.

15. The method of claim 4 , wherein said fermentation process produces said alcohol from a biomass source.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein said biomass source comprises lignocellulosic matter.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the alcohol comprises n-butanol or isobutanol.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein said biomass source of comprises starch or sugar.

19. The method of claim 4 , wherein said fermentation process produces said alcohol from a plant-based source of sugars.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein said liquid hourly space velocity is up to 3 hr −1 .

Assignees

• Ut Battelle Llc
• Ut Battelle Llc

Inventors

• Narula Chaitanya K
• Davison Brian H
• Keller Martin

Classifications

• B01J29/7661

  MRE-type, e.g. ZSM-48 · CPC title

• B01J29/7869

  MTW-type, e.g. ZSM-12, NU-13, TPZ-12 or Theta-3 · CPC title

• Y02E50/10

  Biofuels, e.g. bio-diesel · CPC title

• B01J37/0246

  Coatings comprising a zeolite · CPC title

• C12P7/06

  Ethanol, i.e. non-beverage · CPC title