Methods, materials, and systems for converting alcohols
View Patent ↗Described herein is a method of converting a first alcohol to a second alcohol that includes forming a mixture including a superparamagnetic catalyst and a feedstock, wherein the feedstock includes the first alcohol, and exposing the mixture to a fluctuating magnetic field to form a product, wherein the product includes a second alcohol having a longer carbon chain length than the first alcohol. A flow-through method is described for converting a first alcohol to a second alcohol, wherein the second alcohol has a longer carbon chain length than the first alcohol. Also described is a method of converting glycerol to butanol that includes forming a mixture including a superparamagnetic catalyst and a feedstock, wherein the feedstock includes glycerol, and exposing the mixture to a fluctuating magnetic field to form a product, wherein the product includes butanol. A flow-through method is described for converting glycerol to butanol.
1. A method for converting a first alcohol to a second alcohol, the method comprising:
contacting a superparamagnetic catalyst and a feedstock to form a mixture, wherein the superparamagnetic catalyst comprises Fe 2 ZnO 4 and, wherein the feedstock comprises the first alcohol having a carbon chain of a first length; and
exposing the mixture to a fluctuating magnetic field to form a product, wherein the product comprises the second alcohol having a carbon chain of a second length, wherein the second length is longer than the first length.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first alcohol comprises glycerol, ethanol, butanol, propanol, methanol, or combinations thereof.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first alcohol comprises glycerol.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second alcohol comprises butanol, octanol, propanol, ethanol, or combinations thereof.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second alcohol comprises butanol.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first alcohol comprises glycerol and the second alcohol comprises butanol.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the superparamagnetic catalyst comprises particles having an average diameter of about 50 nm to about 100 nm.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the superparamagnetic catalyst further comprises at least one of Co, Ni, and V.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture comprises about 100 mg to about 500 mg of superparamagnetic catalyst to every about 2 ml to 20 ml of first alcohol.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture comprises about 400 mg of superparamagnetic catalyst to every about 15 ml of first alcohol.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluctuating magnetic field has a field strength of at least about 300 milliTesla.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluctuating magnetic field has a field strength of about 300 milliTesla to about 600 milliTesla.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluctuating magnetic field has a fluctuation frequency of about 48 Hz to about 52 Hz.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluctuating magnetic field is supplied by an alternating current electromagnet.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture is heated to a temperature of about 30° C. to about 45° C.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture is exposed to the fluctuating magnetic field for about 1 minute to about 60 minutes.
17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recovering the superparamagnetic catalyst.
18. A flow-through method for converting glycerol to butanol, the method comprising:
providing a feedstock comprising glycerol;
passing the feedstock through a reaction chamber containing a superparamagnetic catalyst, wherein the superparamagnetic catalyst comprises Fe 2 ZnO 4 ; and
exposing the feedstock to a fluctuating magnetic field within the reaction chamber to form a product comprising butanol.