Biomass is a natural resource that is both abundant and sustainable. Its efficient utilization has long been the focus of research and development efforts with the aim to substitute it for fossil-based feedstock. In addition to the production of biofuels (e.g., ethanol) from biomass, which has been to some degree successful, its conversion to high value-added chemicals is equally important. Among various biomass conversion pathways, catalytic conversion is usually preferred, as it provides a cost-effective and eco-benign route to the desired products with high selectivities. The research of this thesis is focused on the conversion of biomass to various chemicals of commercial interest by selective catalytic oxidation. Molecular oxygen is chosen as the oxidant considering its low cost and environment friendly features in comparison with commonly used hydrogen peroxide. However, the activation of molecular oxygen usually requires high reaction temperatures, leading to over oxidation and thus lower selectivities. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop effective catalysts for such conversion systems. We use kegging-type heteropoly acids (HPAs) as a platform for catalysts design because of their high catalytic activities and ease of medication. Using HPA catalysts allows the conversion taking place at relatively low temperature, which is beneficial to saving production cost as well as to improving the reaction selectivity. The strong acidity of HPA promotes the hydrolysis of biomass of giant molecules (e.g. cellulose), which is the first as well as the most difficult step in the conversion process. Under certain circumstances, a HPA combines the merits of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, acting as an efficient homogeneous catalyst during the reaction while being easily separated as a heterogeneous catalyst after the reaction. We have successfully applied HPAs in several biomass conversion systems. Specially, we prepared a HPA-based bi-functional catalyst (Au/Cs2HPW12O40) that enabled the selective conversion of cellobiose to gluconic acid with a very high yield of 96.4% (Chapter II); we realized a direct oxidative conversion of cellulose to glycolic acid (yield of 49.3 %) in a water medium for the first time, by using a phosphomolybdic acid catalyst (chapter III); we found that a vanadium-substituted phosphomolybdic acid catalyst (H4PVMo11O40) is capable of converting various biomass-derived substrates to formic acid and acetic acid with high selectivity, and under optimized reaction conditions, high yield of formic acid (67.8%) can be obtained from cellulose (chapter IV); we discovered that the vanadium-substituted phosphomolybdic acids can also selectively oxidize glycerol, a low-cost by-product of biodiesel, to formic acid, and interestingly this conversion can be performed in highly concentration aqueous solution (glycerol: water = 50: 50), giving rise to exceptionally high conversion efficiency (chapter V). These results reveal that HPAs are useful and suitable catalysts for selective oxidation of biomass, and that the reaction pathway is largely determined by the type of addenda atom in the HPA catalyst. The optimization of the reaction conditions and processes in these systems are also discussed in this thesis.

Due to the water pollution problems created by MTBE, significant research was focused on the production of alternative oxygenates, such as ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-amyl-methyl-ether (TAME) and tert-amyl-ethyl-ether (TAEE) as octane enhancing gasoline blending components. These oxygenates are expected to improve the burning characteristics of gasoline and reduce exhaust emissions of CO and hydrocarbons. Generally, macroreticular acidic resin catalysts (Amberlyst-15) are used for the etherification reactions between C5 iso-olefins (2M1B/2M2B) and alcohols (ethanol/methanol). But in recent years, heteropoly acid compounds are being used in the production of tert-ethers to replace those macroreticular acidic resin catalysts. HPAs are known to be active catalysts for many of homogeneous and heterogeneous acid catalyzed reactions.These compounds have high acidity, high catalytic activity but they are highly soluble in polar solvents such as water,alcohol when they are used in bulk form. In this research, applicability of bulk heteropoly acid (HPA) and its supported form, to the gas-phase etherification reaction of iso-olefin (2-methyl- 2-butene) with ethyl alcohol in a continuous differential reactor was investigated. The heteropoly acid (H3PW12O40.xH2O) was supported on activated carbon, at two different loading levels, by aqueous impregnation technique. After catalyst characterization, kinetic experiments were done in a temperature range between 80&deg / C-97&deg / C with a feed concentration of 30 vol.%2M2B+70 vol.% ethanol. Supported HPA catalysts yielded lower conversion and rate of reaction than the bulk HPA. After that, to make a comparison, same experiments have been carried out with Amberlyst-15 and a different HPA (H3PMo12O40.xH2O) at 90oC. The results showed that, at this temperature, bulk tungstophosphoric acid (H3PW12O40.xH2O) was highly active among the other catalysts. Moreover, the deactivation of bulk and supported HPA were investigated and found that partial deactivation occurred when they were reused, without any treatment. In the final part of the study, the activity of alcohol-treated supported HPA catalyst and formation of side products, dimethyl or diethyl ether, at 90&deg / C were investigated. When the supported catalyst was treated with alcohol, before utilizing in the experiments, lower conversion was obtained with respect to the conversion value obtained in the presence of fresh catalyst. The studies done on the formation of side product showed that, no side product was formed at this working temperature.

The solid acid catalyst of the Keggin-type 12-tungstophosphoric acid (H3PW12O40, HPW) is supported on partially reduced graphene oxide (PRGO) nanosheets for acid-catalyzed reactions. HPW is a new class of catalyst with a good thermal stability and high Bronsted acidity in order to replace common mineral acids. However, it has low specific surface area (1-5 m2/g). Therefore, the possibility of PRGO as a catalytic support for HPW is investigated due to its high surface area (2630 m2/g) and good thermal stability. The synthesis of HPW-GO catalyst is prepared using microwave and laser irradiation without using any chemical reducing agents. The HPW-GO catalysts are characterized by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques, and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Also, the surface acidity is measured by a non-aqueous titration of n-butyl amine. Furthermore, the application for catalysts is tested by three acid-catalyzed reactions: Esterification, Friedel-Crafts acylation, and Pechmann condensation. The greatest acidity for the microwave irradiation method is with the loading of 85 wt% HPW-GO and 60wt% HPW-GO for laser irradiation. The results observed provide an excellent opportunity for PRGO as a catalytic support for HPW for acid-catalyzed reactions.

The determination of complexes formed in weakly acidic aqueous solutions containing pentavalent vanadium as well as hexavalent molybdenum has proved diffi cui t due to slow equilibria and 1 imi ted sol ubi 1 i ty of especially the vanadium species. The formation of several different polynuclear complexes with a very varied molybdenum/vanadium ratio also complicates the interpretation of Potentiometrie data. In order to clarify the picture of complexes formed and provide starting points for equilibrium calculations single-crystal X-ray studies were made on crystals obtained from âqueous solutions. In addition, these studies can provide information on bonding conditions and possibly formation mechanisms for molybdovanadate polyanions. Crystals were synthesized by slow evaporation of aqueous solutions. Solutions with varied molybdenum/vanadium ratios and also varied pH values were prepared and used in the synthesis experiments. The X-ray measurements were performed with Philips PAILRED, Syntex P21 and Syntex R3 automatic diffractometers. All data sets were corrected for absorption. Five of the structures were solved with heavy-atom methods and one by direct methods. The structures were refined by computer-performed least-squares methods. The following crystals were obtained and structurally determined: NaV03•1.89H2O, which contains chains of VO5 trigonal bipyramids. Na4V2O7 (H2O)18 , containing discrete V2O74- anions which are completely surrounded by sodium-coordinated water molecules. Discrete molybdovanadate polyanions were found in the structures of the compounds Na6Mo6\/2O26 (H2O)16 , K7Mo8V5O40 • 8H2O, K8Mo4,V8O36 - 12H20 and K6 (V2 , Mo10) VO40 • 13H20. The last substance belongs to a class of compounds named 'heteropoly blues', which contain metal atoms in mixed-valence states, and has one unpaired electron on the polyanion. This compound was also investigated with electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The bonding configurations of oxygen atoms coordinated to molybdenum or vanadium are described and discussed. As the Mo4V8O368-, Mo8V5O407- (which is an isomer of the Keggin anion but has a quite different structure) and Mo6V2O266- anions all contain remnants of mononuclear molybdate and vanadate anions, it seems likely that these polyanions are formed mainly through the condensation of mononuclear species.An electrostatic model for the simulation of bond distances in polyions, starting with perfectly regular idealized models, is presented. / <p>Härtill 6 delar.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Fast depletion of oil reserves necessitates the development of novel alternative motor vehicle fuels. Global warming problems also initiated new research to develop new fuels creating less CO2 emission. Nowadays, dimethyl ether (DME) and diethyl ether (DEE) are considered as important alternative clean energy sources. These valuable ethers are produced by the dehydration reaction of methanol and ethanol, respectively, in the presence of acidic catalysts. Besides DEE, ethylene which is very important in petrochemical industry, can also be produced by ethanol dehydration reaction. In the first part of this study, the catalytic activity of tungstophosphoric acid (TPA), silicotungstic acid (STA) and molybdophosphoric acid (MPA), which are well-known heteropolyacids were tested in ethanol dehydration reaction. The activities of other solid acid catalysts, such as Nafion and mesoporous aluminosilicate, were also tested in the dehydration reaction of ethanol. In the case of DME production by dehydration of methanol, activities of STA, TPA and aluminosilicate catalysts were tested. Among the heteropolyacid catalysts, STA showed the highest activity in both ethanol and methanol dehydration reactions. With an increase of temperature from 180oC to 250oC, Ethylene selectivities increased while DEE selectivities decreased. Ethylene yield values over 0.70 were obtained at 250oC. The presence of water in the feed stream caused some reduction in the activity of TPA catalyst. Very high DME yields were obtained using mesoporous aluminosilicate catalyst at about 450oC. The surface area of heteropolyacids are very low and they are soluble in polar solvents such as water and alcohols. Considering these drawbacks of heteropolyacid catalysts, novel mesoporous STA based high surface area catalysts were synthesized following a hydrothermal synthesis route. These novel catalysts were highly stable and they did not dissolve in polar solvents. The catalysts containing W/Si ratios of 0.19 (STA62(550)) and 0.34 (STA82(550)) have BJH surface area values of 481 m2/g and 210 m2/g, respectively, with pore size distributions ranging in between 2-15 nm. These catalysts were characterized by XRD, EDS, SEM, TGA, DTA, DSC, FTIR and Nitrogen Adsorption techniques and their activities were tested in ethanol dehydration reaction. Calcination temperature of the catalysts was shown to be a very important parameter for the activities of these catalysts. Considering the partial decomposition and proton lost of the catalysts over 375oC, they are calcined at 350oC and 550oC before testing them in ethanol dehydration reaction. The catalysts calcined at 350oC showed much higher activity at temperature as low as 180oC. However, the catalysts calcined at 550oC showed activity over 280oC. Ethylene yield values approaching to 0.90 were obtained at about 350oC with catalysts calcined at 350oC. DEE yield past through a maximum with an increase in temperature indicating its decomposition to Ethylene at higher temperatures. However, at lower temperatures (&lt / 300oC) Ethylene and DEE were concluded to be formed through parallel routes. Formation of some acetaldehyde at lower temperatures indicated a possible reaction path through acetaldehyde in the formation of DEE. DRIFTS results also proved the presence of ethoxy, acetate and ethyl like species in addition to adsorbed ethanol molecules on the catalyst surface and gave additional information related to the mechanism.

In this research, molybdophosphoric acid (PMo) was blended with polysulfone polymer (PSF) and form a film catalyst by using a common solvent dimethylformamide (DMF). Kinetic and mass transfer parameters were evaluated for catalytic films in ethanol lactic acid esterification reaction as film surface area, film thickness and catalyst loading were varied at 50&amp / #61616 / C, 1 atm and 1:1 ethyl alcohol to lactic acid mole ratio conditions. Also prepared films were characterized by DSC, TGA, FTIR, X-ray and SEM analysis. It was observed that the catalytic films showed higher activities with respect to the unloaded form of PSF and activities were increased with the increasing loading levels. The stabilities of the loaded catalysts were tested by means of deactivation experiments. A decrease was observed after 5th trial for 10wt% PMo loaded PSF film and at 4th trial for 15wt% PMo loaded PSF film. However, activities of the loaded films gave still higher conversion results than the unloaded PSF film. Also it was proved that with increasing film thickness conversion was decreased and increasing surface area conversion was increased. It was observed from the characterization studies that PMo catalysts have no chemical interaction with the PSF polymer and there was trace amount of DMF solvent was observed in the PMo-PSF catalytic film. Particulate structure of the PMo catalyst was observed and there is no catalyst agglomeration in the membrane network. However, along the thickness, catalyst particles were not homogeneously but finely dispersed in amorphous film structure.

Long-chain alkylbenzenes are industrially synthesized precursors to commercial surfactants such as laundry detergent. The currently used catalysts in the processes of their synthesis are corrosive and harmful to the environment. These problems can be avoided utilizing heterogeneous highly acidic catalysts. Solid catalysts do not corrode equipment and are relatively simple to remove from the post-reaction mixture. Phosphotungstic acid (PTA) supported on silica gel could be a possible catalyst due to its high acidity with an estimated pKa ≈ -13. The catalyst PTA-SiO2 was prepared via the sol-gel method to covalently embed it in a silica support. The catalyst was granulated with γ-alumina for use in a fixed bed flow reactor during the alkylation of benzene with long chain alkenes. The isomerization of 1-octene, 1-decene, and 1-octadecene as well as the conversion of 1-decene in the alkylation of benzene were studied under varying conditions. During these reactions, the catalyst demonstrated good catalytic activity at temperatures above 200 °C with an optimal temperature of 250 °C. Of all three alkenes, 1-octadecene showed the highest conversion into respective isomers. The alkylation of benzene with 1-decene experiments showed decreasing of flow rate and increasing the ratio of benzene to 1-decene lead to higher conversions of 1-decene. Characterization of the catalyst after the reaction showed little changes in porosity and particle size. No leaching of PTA was observed. However, carbon deposits were found on the catalyst that requires regeneration before next use in catalysis.

Abstract: Superacidic mesoporous silica materials containing embedded heteropolyacids (HPAs) were synthesized by sol–gel method in acidic media. In these materials, HPAs were immobilized into the silica structure covalently. The most acidic materials were obtained at the use of Pluronic P123 as a non-ionic pore-forming agent. Ionic surfactants also formed mesoporous structures, however, their interaction with HPA reduced acidity of the products. Obtained materials were tested as heterogeneous catalysts in liquid-phase alkylation of 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene by 1-decene. The most effective catalyst demonstrated higher conversion of starting substances to long-chain isomeric alkylbenzenes as compared to the activity of zeolite HY, a well-known alkylation catalyst. No leaching of HPA from silica gel was observed after the alkylation.