Florent and Bartek review heterogeneous catalyst stability.
© J. Luterbacher / 2015 Swiss Chemical Society
As part of a special review for the SCCER – BIOSWEET in Chimia, Florent and Bartek talks about strategies for stabilizing catalysts that are used in the harsh reaction conditions associated with biomass conversion. Titled “Improving Heterogeneous Catalyst Stability for Liquid-phase Biomass Conversion and Reforming”, the review covers the causes of catalyst deactivation as well as recent strategies developed to combat this, including catalyst overcoating and materials/process engineering.
Abstract:
Biomass is a possible renewable alternative to fossil carbon sources. Today, many bio-resources can be converted to direct substitutes or suitable alternatives to fossil-based fuels and chemicals. However, catalyst deactivation under the harsh, often liquid-phase reaction conditions required for biomass treatment is a major obstacle to developing processes that can compete with the petrochemical industry. This review presents recently developed strategies to limit reversible and irreversible catalyst deactivation such as metal sintering and leaching, metal poisoning and support collapse. Methods aiming to increase catalyst lifetime include passivation of low-stability atoms by overcoating, creation of microenvironments hostile to poisons, improvement of metal stability, or reduction of deactivation by process engineering.