{"id":130872,"date":"2015-12-03T16:10:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T21:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=130872"},"modified":"2015-12-10T11:01:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T16:01:43","slug":"more-efficient-way-of-converting-ethanol-leads-to-better-alternative-fuel-130872","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/more-efficient-way-of-converting-ethanol-leads-to-better-alternative-fuel-130872\/","title":{"rendered":"More efficient way of converting ethanol leads to better alternative fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Catalysts Lead to Near Total Conversion<\/em><\/p>\n

Ethanol, which is produced from corn, is commonly-used as an additive in engine fuel as a way to reduce harmful emissions and scale back U.S. reliance on foreign oil. \u00a0But since ethanol is an oxygenated fuel, its use results in a lower energy output, as well as increased damage to engines via corrosion.<\/p>\n

But now a research team, led by William Jones at the URochester, has developed a series of reactions that results in the selective conversion of ethanol to butanol, without producing unwanted byproducts.<\/p>\n

\u201cButanol is much better than ethanol as an alternative to gasoline,\u201d said Jones, the C.F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry. \u201cIt yields more energy, is less volatile, and doesn\u2019t cause damage to engines.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Jones was able to increase the amount of ethanol converted to butanol by almost 25 percent over currently used methods. Jones describes his process in a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Converting ethanol to butanol involves creating a larger chemical molecule with more carbon and hydrogen atoms.\u00a0 Although both molecules have a single oxygen atom, the higher carbon-to-oxygen ratio in butanol gives it a higher energy content, while the larger size make it less volatile.<\/p>\n

One method of converting the ethanol to butanol is the three-step Guerbet reaction, which involves temporarily giving up hydrogen atoms in an intermediate step, then adding them back in to create the final product. One problem with the Guerbet reaction is that an intermediate product\u2014acetaldehyde\u2014can react with both itself and the butanol product to create unwanted molecules.<\/p>\n

Jones modified the Guerbet reaction by using iridium as the initial catalyst and nickel or copper hydroxide, instead of potassium hydroxide (KOH), in the second step. While the best current conditions for the Guerbet reaction convert ethanol to butanol with about 80% selectivity, Jones\u2019 reaction produced butanol in more than 99 percent selectivity.\u00a0 No undesirable side products are produced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still more work to do,\u201d said Jones. \u201cWe\u2019d like to have a catalyst that\u2019s less expensive than iridium. Also, we want to make the conversion process last longer, which means figuring out what currently makes it stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones says the process currently terminates after one day because one or more of the substances\u2014the iridium, nickel, and copper\u2014has broken down.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we solve the remaining problems,\u201d said Jones, \u201cwe may be able to start looking for ways to apply the conversion process in the making of renewable fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research by Jones was carried out under the NSF (National Science Foundation) support of the Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis, an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A research team led by chemistry professor William Jones has developed a series of reactions that results in the selective conversion of ethanol to butanol, without producing unwanted byproducts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":130902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[19862,19752,4626,18572,16072,27822],"class_list":["post-130872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-department-of-chemistry","tag-energy","tag-featured-post","tag-research-finding","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-william-jones"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMore efficient way of converting ethanol leads to better alternative fuel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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