Unraveling the Homologation Reaction Sequence of the Zeolite‐Catalyzed Ethanol‐to‐Hydrocarbon Process

Although industrialized, the mechanism of catalytic upgrading of bio‐ethanol over solid acid catalysts, i.e., ethanol‐to‐hydrocarbon (ETH) reaction, has not yet been fully unveiled. Moreover, mechanistic understanding of the ETH reaction primarily relies heavily on its well‐known 'sister‐reaction', i.e., the methanol‐to‐hydrocarbon (MTH) process. However, having a C1‐entity reactant, the MTH process cannot shed any light on the homologation reaction sequence. Herein, by employing a combination of complementary solid‐state NMR and operando UV‐visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy with on‐line mass spectrometry, the reaction and deactivation mechanism of the zeolite H‐ZSM‐5 catalyzed ETH process was elucidated. This approach establishes the existence of a homologation reaction sequence through the pattern analysis of the identified reactive and deactivated species. Furthermore, in contrast to the MTH process, the deficiency of any olefinic‐hydrocarbon pool species (i.e. olefin cycle) during the ETH process is also spotted:

from A via a.sfakia on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2FMO2XR