Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group

  • Hybrid MOF catalysts development for glycerol valorization

    Funding : Universidad Rey Juan Carlos ()
    Start / End Years : 2023 - 2023
    Principal Investigator : Orcajo Rincón, Gisela
    Research Team : - Calleja Pardo, Guillermo - García Rojas, Elena - Leo Llorente, Pedro - Martos Sánchez, Carmen - Orcajo Rincón, Gisela - Paredes Martínez, Beatriz - Tapiador Cebrián, Jesús 

      Show summary: In the current energy-demanding world and emissions-restrictive scenario, biofuels also play an important role in decarbonization, mainly in transportation, buildings and industry. The global production of biodiesel is still growing, generating a massive amount of glycerol as by-product at a rate of 10-12% of biodiesel and a purity of about 50-55%. The global glycerol market size was valued at USD 2.4 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% in terms of revenue from 2021 to 2027. Alternatives are especially interesting if the use of crude glycerol is enabled without the need of further purification, so new chemical conversion routes need to be explored. Among these alternatives, acetalization reactions stand out as a process that can adhere to the principles of Green Chemistry and can be catalyzed by a heterogeneous catalyst. Acetals are traditionally produced from aldehydes and alcohols in the presence of typical acid catalysts such as dry HCl, H2SO4, trifluoroacetic acid, and p-toluenesulfonic acid. Recently, successful, and efficient acetalization reactions have also been reported using heterogeneous catalysts such as Amberlyst-15 and Amberlyst-36, silica-supported heteropoly acids, mesoporous silicates containing arylsulfonate groups and zeolites. However, none of these catalysts can simultaneously contain structural Lewis and Brønsted acid sites, which is a suitable catalytic feature for acetalization reactions. The main objective of this project is to find an efficient system to transform glycerol into high-value products by using advanced catalysts that improves the state of the art about acetalization of glycerol, using heterogeneous, active and selective novel catalysts. These advanced catalysts will be hybrid materials based on MOFs and mesoporous silica that would enhance the physical and chemical properties of the MOF phase, decreasing the economic costs of the catalyst production.
























Conversion of synthesis gas to aromatics at medium temperature with a fischer tropsch and ZSM-5 dual catalyst bed

Weber, J. L.; Martínez del Monte, D.; Beerthuis, R.; Dufour, J.; Martos, C.; de Jong, K. P.; de Jongh, P. E.


Effect of K, Co and Mo addition in Fe-based catalysts for aviation biofuels production by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

Martínez del Monte, D.; Vizcaíno, A. J.; Dufour, J.; Martos, C.


Effect of the precursor on the activity of high temperature water gas shift catalysts

Dufour, J.; Martos, C.; Ruiz, A.; Ayuela, F. J.


Effect of ion-exchange modification on hydrogen and carbon dioxide adsorption behaviour of RhoZMOF material

Calleja, G.; Botas, J. A.; Martos, C.; Orcajo, G.; J. A. Villajos


Effects in the solubility of CaCO3: Experimental study and model description

Coto, B.; Martos, C.; Peña, J. L.; Rodríguez, R.; Pastor, G.


Study of New Methods To Obtain the n-Paraffin Distribution of Crude Oils and Its Application to Flow Assurance

Coto, B.; Martos, C. ; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M.D.; Merino-García, D.; Peña, J. L.


Assessment and improvement of n-Paraffin distribution obtained by HTGC to predict accurately crude oil cold properties

Coto, B.; Coutinho, J. A. P.; Martos, C. ; Robustillo, M.D.; Espada, J. J.; Peña, J. L.


A New DSC-Based Method to Determine the Wax Porosity of Mixtures Precipitated from Crude Oils

Coto, B.; Martos, C. ; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M.D.; Merino-García, D.; Peña, J. L.


Analysis of wax precipitation from crude oils by means of DSC: iterative procedure considering solid-liquid equilibrium equations.

Coto, B.; Martos, C.; Espada, J.J.; Robustillo, M.D.; Peña, J.L.

  • Fuel, 2010, 89 (5), 1087-1094. (2010)

Characterization of Brazilian crude oil samples to improve the prediction of wax precipitation in flow assurance problems

Martos, C. ; Coto, B.; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M.D.; Peña, J. L.; Merino, D.

  • Energy Fuels, 2010, 24 (4), 22212226. (2010)

Effect of precipitation procedure and detection technique on particle size distribution of CaCO3

Martos, C,; Coto, B.; Peña, J.L.; Rodríguez, R.; Merino-Garcia D.; Pastor, G.


Performance of Fe-Cr based WGS catalysts prepared by co-precipitation and oxi-precipitation methods

Maroño, M.; Ruiz, E.; Sánchez, J. M.; Martos, C.; Dufour, J.; Ruiz, A.


Synthesis of Fe3O4-based catalysts for the high-temperature water gas shift reaction

Martos, C.; Dufour, J.; Ruiz, A.


Assessment of a thermodynamic model to describe wax precipitation in flow assurance problems

Coto, B.; Martos, C.; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M. D.; Peña, J. L.; Gómez, S.


Synthesis of Sn-silicalite from hydrothermal conversion of SiO2-SnO2 xerogels

van Grieken, R.; Martos, C.; Sánchez-Sánchez, M.; Serrano, D. P.; Melero, J. A.; Iglesias, J.; Cubero, A. G.


A new method for the determination of wax precipitation from non-diluted crude oils by fractional precipitation

Coto, B.; Martos, C.; Peña, J. L.; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M. D.


Experimental Determination and Characterization of Wax Fractions Precipitated as a Function of Temperature.

Martos, C.; Coto, B.; Espada, J. J.; Robustillo, M. D.; Gómez, S.; Peña, J. L.

  • Energy & Fuels, 22, 708714 (2008)

Los problemas energéticos a gran escala: el hidrógeno, ¿mito o solución?

Calleja, G.; Martos, M. C.

  • Energa Revista de Ingeniera y Medioambiental, 47-48 (2005)

The role of hydroxyl groups on the silica surface when supporting metallocene/MAO catalyst

van Grieken, R.; Calleja, G.; Serrano, D.P.; Martos, C.; Melgares, A.M.; Suárez, I.

  • Polymer Reaction Engineering, 11(1) , 17-32 (2003)

Preparation and Characterisation of Mesoporous Silica Spheres

van Grieken, R.; Serrano, D. P.; Martos, C.; Melgares, A. M.


Morphology and surface properties of titania-silica hydrophobic xerogels

Fierro, J. L. G.; López Granados, M.; Mariscal, R.; Sotelo, J. L.; van Grieken, R.; Martos, C.

  • Langmuir, 24, 9460-9467 (2000)

Catalytic aerogel-like materials dried at ambient pressure for liquid phase epoxidation

Sotelo, J.L.; van Grieken, R.; Martos, C.

  • Chemical Communications, 549-550 (1999)

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