Enrico Catizzone

CO2 Recycling to Dimethyl Ether: State-of-the-Art and Perspectives

This review reports recent achievements in dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis via CO2 hydrogenation. This gas-phase process could be considered as a promising alternative for carbon dioxide recycling toward a (bio)fuel as DME. In this view, the production of DME from catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 appears as a technology able to face also the ever-increasing demand for alternative, environmentally-friendly fuels and energy carriers. Basic considerations on thermodynamic aspects controlling DME production from CO2 are presented along with a survey of the most innovative catalytic systems developed in this field. During the last years, special attention has been paid to the role of zeolite-based catalysts, either in the methanol-to-DME dehydration step or in the one-pot CO2-to-DME hydrogenation. Overall, the productivity of DME was shown to be dependent on several catalyst features, related not only to the metal-oxide phase—responsible for CO2 activation/hydrogenation—but also to specific properties of the zeolites (i.e., topology, porosity, specific surface area, acidity, interaction with active metals, distributions of metal particles, …) influencing activity and stability of hybridized bifunctional heterogeneous catalysts. All these aspects are discussed in details, summarizing recent achievements in this research field.

Direct versus acetalization routes in the reaction network of catalytic HMF etherification

The etherification of HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural) to EMF (5-(ethoxymethyl)furan-2-carbaldehyde) is studied over a series of MFI-type zeolite catalysts containing different heteroatoms (B, Fe, Al), aiming to understand the effect of different isomorph substitutions in the MFI framework on the reaction pathways of HMF conversion. The rate constants in the reaction network are determined for these different catalysts and analyzed with respect to the amount of Bronsted and Lewis acid sites determined by FT-IR pyridine adsorption. Two different pathways of EMF formation, i.e. direct etherification and via acetalization, were evidenced. The Lewis acid sites generated from the presence of aluminum are primarily active in catalyzing direct HMF etherification to EMF, which has a rate constant about one order of magnitude lower than the etherification of the corresponding acetals. This behaviour is due to the competitive chemisorption between hydroxyl and aldehyde groups (both present in HMF) on the Lewis acid sites catalyzing the etherification. A cooperation phenomenon between Bronsted and Lewis acid sites is observed for the HMF acetal etherification to EMF acetal. In the reactions of direct HMF acetalization and deacetalization of the EMF acetal, the turnover frequencies for Silicalite-1 and B-MFI samples are about twice those for Fe-MFI and Al-MFI samples. This is attributed to the different reactivity of strong silanol groups associated with surface defects on the external surface in Silicalite-1 and B-MFI. These sites are also responsible for the EMF-to-EOP (ethyl 4-oxopentanoate) reaction step. In the deacetalization reaction of the EMF acetal, the behavior is determined from the presence of water (product of reaction) favouring the back reaction (aldehyde formation).