Abstract
In this chapter, the mechanisms of reactions during methane-assisted biofuel conversion process will be presented. First, the main constituents of biofuel resources will be mainly classified into several groups, including carboxylic acids, alcohols/phenols, esters, aldehydes, and ketones, despite the varied composition. It can be seen that one of the most important characteristics of biofuel molecules is the presence of oxygen atoms, whose evolution deserves extra attention in the mechanism study. Then, the reaction processes of specific model compounds including alcohols, carbonyls, phenolics/lignin, cellulose, and furans will be discussed as case studies. During the discussion, the reaction pathway will be given, followed by investigations regarding the function of methane and the property-performance relationship of the charged catalysts. Finally, the most important characteristics of biofuel conversion under methane environment, the specific challenges for real applications, and possible solutions will be summarized. It should be noted that although no mature industry practice of methane-assisted biofuel conversion is currently reported, this economically and environmentally friendly process is expected to attract more and more attention for sustainable development.
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Song, H., Jarvis, J., Meng, S., Xu, H., Li, Z., Li, W. (2022). Mechanism Studies on Biofuel Conversion Under Methane Environment. In: Methane Activation and Utilization in the Petrochemical and Biofuel Industries. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88424-6_8
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