Efficient Catalytic Dehydration of High-Concentration 1-Butanol with Zn-Mn-Co Modified γ-Al2O3 in Jet Fuel Production

It is important to develop full-performance bio-jet fuel based on alternative feedstocks. The compound 1-butanol can be transformed into jet fuel through dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation. In this study, a new catalyst consisting of Zn-Mn-Co modified γ-Al2O3 was used for the dehydration of high-concentration 1-butanol to butenes. The interactive effects of reaction temperature and butanol weight-hourly space velocity (WHSV) on butene yield were investigated with response surface methodology (RSM). Butene yield was enhanced when the temperature increased from 350 °C to 450 °C but it was reduced as WHSV increased from 1 h−1 to 4 h−1. Under the optimized conditions of 1.67 h−1 WHSV and 375 °C reaction temperature, the selectivity of butenes achieved 90%, and the conversion rate of 1-butanol reached 100%, which were 10% and 6% higher, respectively, than when using unmodified γ-Al2O3. The Zn-Mn-Co modified γ-Al2O3 exhibited high stability and a long lifetime of 180 h, while the unmodified γ-Al2O3 began to deactivate after 60 h. Characterization with X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, pyridine temperature-programmed desorption (Py-TPD), pyridine adsorption IR spectra, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), showed that the crystallinity and acid content of γ-Al2O3 were obviously enhanced by the modification with Zn-Mn-Co, and the loading amounts of zinc, manganese, and cobalt were 0.54%, 0.44%, and 0.23%, respectively. This study provides a new catalyst, and the results will be helpful for the further optimization of bio-jet fuel production with a high concentration of 1-butanol.