Isoprene Formation from Isoamyl Alcohol in Microchannels of a Converter Modified with Nanoscale Catalytic Iron–Chromium-Containing Systems

Abstract : A two-stage process for producing isoprene from isoamyl alcohol has been developed through the successive implementation of the steps of dehydration of isoamyl alcohol and dehydrogenation of resulting isoamylenes using porous ceramic converters obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis, with the converter pores bearing Fe–Cr systems synthesized by the sol–gel technique and containing subnanosized iron and chromium particles. It has been shown that the bimetallic catalytic system obtained by separate deposition of Fe and Cr has the highest activity toward the isoamylenes studied in the dehydrogenation reaction; on this catalyst system using 24-fold dilution with water and a temperature of 600°C, the isoprene yield is up to ~10%, selectivity is ~23%, and productivity is ~0.13 Lisoprene/(h gact.comp). The conversion of the isoamylene fraction is 46%.