New insights of butadiene production from ethanol: Elucidation of concurrent reaction pathways and kinetic study

While most papers focuses on catalysts improvement, this paper is about a kinetic model based on a new reaction scheme to explain the transformation of ethanol/acetaldehyde to butadiene and side products. The reaction scheme presented here is more complex than the route usually presented in the literature, i.e. Gorin-Jones route. In order to develop this kinetic model, the reaction scheme is studied by means of fixed bed type catalytic tests using Ta2O5-SiO2 catalysts with a temperature range from 320 degrees C to 370 degrees C and a constant pressure. The reactor (gas/solid, isothermal and isobaric) is modelled in steady state. It is concluded that the model that includes two different routes of butadiene production is in good agreement with the productions of major products and is necessary to explain the formation of some side products, highlighting a brand new reaction scheme for ethanol-to-butadiene transformation.