Omvir Singh

Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, India

Title: Production of Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Long Chain Unsaturated Used Cooking Oil Over a Hierarchical Imidazole Supported Zeolite

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Biography

Dr Omvir Singh is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Sciences and Humanities at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology. he received his doctoral degree from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (India) in 2022. He then joined in Indian institute of science (IISc) Bangalore India for postdoctoral fellow  after that his next postdoctoral experience from Kyushu university Japan.  His research focuses on converting unconventional feedstocks into value-added chemicals using heterogeneous catalysts for next generation of sustainable processes. Converting biomass feedstocks into drop-in chemicals is highly demanding as they can be used without any modification of existing industrial setups.  He has published many scientific research articles and  US patents during his research. His research at RGIPT shall be directed to the catalytic upgradation of unconventional feedstock such as Tree Borne Oil (TBO), Sugar (Cellulose), and municipal plastic wastes into drop-in chemicals which is highly demanding as they can be used without any modification of existing industrial setups. His expertise lies in synthesizing heterogeneous catalyst(s) based on porous materials like zeolite, defect-rich metal oxides, MOF and ZIF type of materials along with single-atom catalysts (SAC) for application in the development of sustainable processes. He is a recipient of various awards and fellowships, including junior/senior research fellowships and BRICS young scientist in 2022.

Abstract

The efficient and sustainable used of large spare of food waste in developing countries.  The used of Used cooking oil (UCO) for different process (esterification, catalytic upgradation) is better and alternative feedstock for petrochemicals industry. The transformation of Methanol assisted upgrading of UCO into xylene rich aromatics over ZSM-5 catalyst with different loading of Ga and Co has been investigated in a continuous down flow reactor. To study the aromatization as well as alkylation effect of methanol on UCO for production of xylene aromatic. The Nano zeolite mainly Co-Ga supported ZSM-5 zeolite has increased its acidic site, and porosity which can interacted with UCO and methanol to give Xylene rich aromatics product. Different analytical techniques such as BET-surface area measurements, XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, TPR, FT-IR, RAMAN, and TGA analysis were employed to characterize the catalyst. The BET shows a pore size of Co-Ga- ZSM-5 supported zeolite catalyst was found to be ?6.3 nm, which significantly contributed and enhanced the conversion and selectivity towards aromatic(C6-C8). The alkylation effect of methanol with used cooking oil (UCO) for achieving the p-xylene selectivity, the excess amount of methanol can cause side change alkylation reaction, resulting in the formation of Trimethyl benzene (TMB) and other alkylated product. Therefore, on the optimized condition 20% methanol bleeding with used cooking oil give the maximum selectivity of p-xylene 8.5% and total xylene selectivity is 20.1%.  The deactivation of Cobalt supported zeolite acidic catalysts for the production of aromatic hydrocarbon via formation of intermediate depends on the catalyst acidity and pore size. This indicates the main reaction between Paraffinic rich UCO on bimetallic Co-Ga supported ZSM-5 with significant participation of the support.  Gradually, the coke on the support Co-Ga supported ZSM-5 zeolite increases to an extent that it blocks the reaction also at that location.