abstract: Emergent environmental issues, ever-shrinking petroleum reserves, and rising fossil fuel costs continue to spur interest in the development of sustainable biofuels from renewable feed-stocks. Meanwhile, however, the development and viability of biofuel fermentations remain limited by numerous factors such as feedback inhibition and inefficient and generally energy intensive product recovery processes. To circumvent both feedback inhibition and recovery issues, researchers have turned their attention to incorporating energy efficient separation techniques such as adsorption in in situ product recovery (ISPR) approaches. This thesis focused on the characterization of two novel adsorbents for the recovery of alcohol biofuels from model aqueous solutions. First, a hydrophobic silica aerogel was evaluated as a biofuel adsorbent through characterization of equilibrium behavior for conventional second generation biofuels (e.g., ethanol and n-butanol). Longer chain and accordingly more hydrophobic alcohols (i.e., n-butanol and 2-pentanol) were more effectively adsorbed than shorter chain alcohols (i.e., ethanol and i-propanol), suggesting a mechanism of hydrophobic adsorption. Still, the adsorbed alcohol capacity at biologically relevant conditions were low relative to other `model' biofuel adsorbents as a result of poor interfacial contact between the aqueous and sorbent. However, sorbent wettability and adsorption is greatly enhanced at high concentrations of alcohol in the aqueous. Consequently, the sorbent exhibits Type IV adsorption isotherms for all biofuels studied, which results from significant multilayer adsorption at elevated alcohol concentrations in the aqueous. Additionally, sorbent wettability significantly affects the dynamic binding efficiency within a packed adsorption column. Second, mesoporous carbons were evaluated as biofuel adsorbents through characterization of equilibrium and kinetic behavior. Variations in synthetic conditions enabled tuning of specific surface area and pore morphology of adsorbents. The adsorbed alcohol capacity increased with elevated specific surface area of the adsorbents. While their adsorption capacity is comparable to polymeric adsorbents of similar surface area, pore morphology and structure of mesoporous carbons greatly influenced adsorption rates. Multiple cycles of adsorbent regeneration rendered no impact on adsorption equilibrium or kinetics. The high chemical and thermal stability of mesoporous carbons provide potential significant advantages over other commonly examined biofuel adsorbents. Correspondingly, mesoporous carbons should be further studied for biofuel ISPR applications. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Chemical Engineering 2011

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Des nanoparticules d’or dispersées dans un carbone mésoporeux CMK-n (n = 1,3 et 8) ont été obtenues par une méthode originale qui consiste à répliquer des silices mésoporeuses dans lesquelles les particules d’or ont été préalablement formées. La taille des particules d’or est plus petite lorsque la surface de la silice est fonctionnalisée par un thiol (MPTMS) (dAu ~ 2 nm) que par un ammonium (TPTAC) (dAu ~ 6 nm). La taille des particules d’or dans les répliques peut être contrôlée à la fois par la température de calcination du moule et par la température de pyrolyse de la source de carbone. Bien que les répliques carbonées soient beaucoup mieux dispersées dans le milieu réactionnel apolaire que les moules siliciques correspondants, elles sont moins actives dans les oxydations aérobies du cyclohexène et du trans-stilbène en phase liquide. Les meilleures performances dans l'oxydation de ces deux molécules ont été obtenues sur les répliques pyrolysées à 750°C et contenant des particules d’or de taille moyenne d'environ 2 nm. Les très petites particules sont moins actives, probablement parce qu'elles sont complètement enrobées par du carbone, donc inaccessibles. Les performances catalytiques de nos répliques ont été comparées avec celles d'un catalyseur Au/CMK-3 préparé par dépôt colloïdal sur un carbone mésoporeux pré-formé. Les résultats montrent que nos catalyseurs sont beaucoup moins actifs que celui préparé par dépôt colloïdal, car la majorité des particules dans nos répliques sont recouvertes par du carbone. L'inaccessibilité des particules aux gaz a été confirmée par une mesure de chimisorption d’hydrogène sur un catalyseur Pt/CMK-3 préparé par une méthode identique. / Highly dispersed gold nanoparticles in ordered mesoporous carbons CMK-3 have been obtained by an original method which consists in replicating mesoporous SBA-15 silicas containing gold nanoparticles. The gold particle size is smaller when the silica surface is functionalized with a thiol (mercaptopropyl graft, MPTMS) (dAu ~ 2 nm) than with an ammonium (TPTAC) (dAu ~ 6 nm). The gold particle size in replicas can be controlled by both the calcination temperature of the silica template and the pyrolysis temperature of the carbon source. Although the carbon replicas are much better dispersed in non polar solvents than the corresponding silica templates, they are less active in the aerobic oxidations of cyclohexene and trans-stilbene in the liquid phase. The best performances in the oxidation of these two molecules have been obtained on replicas pyrolysed at 750°C and containing gold particles with an average size of about 2 nm. The very small particles are unexpectedly less active probably because they are completely coated by carbon, and thus inaccessible. The catalytic performances of our replicas have been compared with those of a Au/CMK-3 catalyst prepared by colloidal deposition onto a preformed mesoporous carbon replica. The results show that our catalysts are much less active than that prepared by colloidal deposition because the majority of particles in our replicas are covered by carbon. The inaccessibility of particles to gases has been confirmed by hydrogen chemisorption on a Pt/CMK-3 catalyst prepared by an identical method.