Ethanol Guerbet Condensation to n‐Butanol or C <sub>4</sub> ‐C <sub>8</sub> Alcohols over Ni/TiO <sub>2</sub> Catalyst
Shuaiqi Li, Xionghua Zhu, Hualiang An, Xinqiang Zhao, Yanji Wang
Abstract
Abstract Ethanol Guerbet condensation is an environmentally friendly process for preparing biofuel such as n‐butanol and alcohols with more than 4 carbon atoms. In this work, a multifunctional catalyst Ni/TiO 2 was prepared by an excess impregnation method and its catalytic performance for ethanol Guerbet condensation was evaluated. The selectivity of C 4 ‐C 8 alcohols reached up to almost 70% (41.4% of n‐butanol) at nearly half conversion of ethanol at 210 °C and 10 h. Based on GC‐MS analysis results, the products in ethanol Guerbet condensation were identified and a reaction network was established . The presence of acetaldehyde and 2‐crotonaldehyde in the reaction products verified that Ni/TiO 2 ‐catalyzed ethanol condensation followed the traditional dehydrogenation‐condensation‐hydrogenation reaction mechanism.