Autothermal conversion of biomass compounds to transportation fuels using multifunctional stratified reactors

This work explores a novel reactor design that combines autothermal, coke-free, catalytic partial oxidation of model biomass compounds over a noble metal catalyst with acid dehydration chemistry performed by zeolites at short contact times. Spatial profiles of temperature and composition for model oxygenate compounds will be reported for a stratified reactor comprising of an upstream platinum-coated, alpha-alumina monolith and a downstream H-ZSM-5 zeolite-coated monolith in a sub-100 millisecond contact reactor without external supply of process heat. By changing feed fuel to oxygen ratio, the reactor temperature was controlled, and the product selectivities in both the platinum and zeolite sections could be varied. Initial results for co-processing biomass with a hydrogen-rich stream comprised of a saturated alkane as a sacrificial fuel or as a hydrogen transfer reagent will also be presented.