| With fast depletion of fossil fuel, finding alternative and sustainable energy sources is one of the largest problems. Biomass is a sustainable feed stock, but it requires densification due to lower energy density. Biomass is also a distributed energy source; hence processing biomass continuously in a small-scale reactor with short residence time may be highly profitable.;Methanol, one important product generated from biomass-derived syngas, is a platform for production of higher hydrocarbons. Chapter 2 describes small-scale methanol synthesis in a multifunctional reactor with an in situ condenser over a Cu/Zn/Al2O3 catalyst. A multifunctional reactor with water coolant is able to increase the conversion by a factor of two. Chapter 3 discusses methanol synthesis with in situ adsorption using nanocomposites (salt inside a porous matrix) to overcome equilibrium limitations. CaCl 2 inside silica gel has high capacity to uptake a significant amount of methanol at the synthesis operating conditions, resulting in equilibrium shift towards the product (methanol) and increase in the single-pass conversion of the reactants (CO). Chapter 4 and 5 describe the combination the CPO reaction and the dehydration reaction in an autothermal staged reactor to deoxygenate biomass-derived alcohols. The novelty of this reactor is that it integrates exothermic and endothermic reactions in a single reactor tube. Chapter 4 investigates the integration of the CPO reaction and methanol dehydration to produce dimethyl ether (DME) (up to 80% yield). Chapter 5 describes the use of a similar concept and reactor configuration with butanol as feed, since butanol is a next generation transportation fuel derived from biomass. The effect of isomers (n-butanol, 2-butanol, iso-butanol, and tert-butanol) and catalysts (HZSM-5, HFER, and gamma-Al2O3 ) were studied in a systematic way. The fast oxidative pyrolysis of polystyrene (PS) in an autothermal fixed-bed reactor is discussed in chapter 6. The styrene yield was 75% at high C/O ratio (2.2-2.4) and was 85% with H2 as sacrificial fuel. In chapter 7, several experiments are proposed to explore more efficient ways to generate liquid fuel from biomass-derived syngas.;This thesis offers preliminary insights to understand the production of liquid fuel from sustainable energy sources with multifunctional or multi-staged reactors. |
