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ePaper created 2017-03-14, 10:25:37 | version 1.49.03
CHEMISTRY AND PROCESS INDUSTRY 3 CH4 methane 1 CO2 carbon dioxide 2 H2O water enthalpy of combustion of methane: –890.4 kJ / mole => –2671.2 kJ 1 chemocatalysis in membrane reactor 8 CH2O formaldehyde 4 H2O water enzyme reactor material separation 4 CH3OH methanol 4 HCOOH formic acid possible reaction to 4 H2 + 4 CO2 enthalpy of combustion of methanol: –726.4 kJ / mole => –2905.6 kJ MATERIAL USE OF METHANE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PLATFORM CHEMICALS M at t hia s St i e r, D i e te r B r y ni o k Alternative use of biogas Methane is the main component of biogas. Currently, biogas is mainly used as an energy source to produce heat and en- ergy. The energetic use of biogas is eficient if the heat is used judiciously throughout the year – which is not the case for all biogas plants. Therefore, for a long time, research has focused on possibilities for material use of the contained methane. Fraunhofer IGB is making an important contribution to the transition to bio-based production. Development of membrane reactors Economic conversion of methane to valuable substances in the chemical or pharmaceutical sectors requires speciic reac- tor concepts, for example for membrane bioreactors. These allow the continuous extraction of emerging products from the reaction mixture and thus the combination of production and puriication. The aim is an effective recovery of methane by aerobic methanotrophic microorganisms [3]. The substance data characterizing the reactions in the Combination of chemocatalytic and reactor, such as solubility of methane in water at different enzymatic conversion In the joint project “ECOX – Enzymatic-chemocatalytic oxida- tion cascades in the gas phase”, foundations for procedures to convert gaseous substrates have been laid in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis LIKAT in Rostock and Martin Luther University in Halle. temperatures and pressures, can be recorded simultaneously with the new foxySPEC mass spectrometer jointly developed by the Fraunhofer ICT and IGB Institutes. The foxySPEC has a modiied membrane inlet that makes it possible for the irst time to measure simultaneously up to 30 different volatile components in the gas phase as well as in the liquid phase in real time. Project partner LIKAT has developed a chemical catalyst to convert biogas to formaldehyde [1, 2]. The enzymatic processes necessary for the conversion of formaldehyde were developed by Fraunhofer IGB. Using a formaldehyde dismutase from Pseudomonas sp., IGB was able to transform formaldehyde into methanol and formic acid. The formic acid emerging in the enzyme reactor can be used as valuable material or returned into the chemocatalytic process. In ad- dition, use of the procedure to produce methyl formate is a conceivable possibility. This spontaneously occurs in aqueous solution from methanol and formic acid – but so far only at low concentrations. LIKAT hopes to pursue this approach and in the future to also develop chemocatalytic processes for a similar production method for methyl formate. Based on the data so collected, parameters can be derived to optimize the construction of the reactor using a computer- aided simulation. In this way, Fraunhofer IGB is currently developing bioreactors that can be used for all processes of aerobic biotechnical conversion of gaseous substrates. Automated pilot plant for gas phase reactions For the process-engineering development of these processes, a fully automated pilot plant for gas phase reactions was designed and built at Fraunhofer IGB in which temperature, pressure and addition of substrate can be precisely controlled. For the ECOX project, IGB integrated the foxySPEC mass spectrometer into the plant. This allowed measurement of the 8 0