Zn Based LDH for Photocatalytic Biomass Conversion to Useful/Value Added Chemicals

Abstract

It 1is well-known 1fact of today that 1CO2 is catastrophic 1to our environment 1and it is 1prime cause of global 1warming that is 1produced by the 1direct burning of 1biomass. Therefore, 1conversion of biomass 1into useful chemicals 1 and products is the best 1alternative way to 1utilize biomass for production 1to avoid environmental issue 1like global warming by 1direct burning of 1biomass. 1 It is 1an ultimate step in 1all industries especially 1 for those which 1involve combustion of 1fuels. The 1biomass conversion techniques 1that are conventionally 1employed in 1industries are 1thermochemical and 1biochemical. 1Such 1techniques give high 1efficiency 1but 1adds 1too 1much 1to the overall cost owing 1to their extremely 1high energy 1requirements. 1Research 1and development 1in field 1of photocatalysis 1seem 1to overcome 1the challenges 1of conventional 1techniques. 1Photocatalytic biomass 1 conversion is 1emerging as 1a promising 1approach for 1biomass conversion 1to useful1/ valuable 1products since 1it combines 1the benefits of 1high photocatalytic 1surface areas 1and adjustable properties 1attributed to biomass1, along with 1cost effective nature 1of photocatalysis1. 1Already existing TiO2 1and other photocatalytic based conversions 1have been reported in 1literature review. 1The target of the research is to synthesize novel Zn-Fe 1LDH by a simple co-precipitation method and utilize it for the photocatalytic conversion of bio-oil extracted from rice husk by means of pyrolysis at 400 oC. Zn-Fe LDH has broader light absorption 1capacity (visible range) with 12.53 eV 1bandgap. Synthesized pure Zn-Fe LDH is characterized by various analytical techniques such as SEM, XRD, FTIR, and UV Visible DRS spectroscopy. Bio-oil is converted in a photocatalytic reactor under light irradiations of 75 W and analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS). The compounds in bio-oil from rice husk before its photocatalytic reactions are mainly carboxylic acids, phenols, alcohols and small number of alkanes, aldehydes, ketones, and amines. After photocatalytic reaction all the carboxylic acids and phenols are completely converted into alkanes by a complex reaction regime.