SYNTHESIS AND TESTING OF CATALYSTS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MALEIC-ANHYDRIDE FROM A FERMENTATION FEEDSTOCK

It is necessary to develop alternate pathways for the production of ch emicals that are traditionally produced from fossil fuels to reduce ou r dependency on nonrenewable energy sources. In this paper, an alterna te technology is presented for producing maleic anhydride from a ferme ntation feedstock. The process involves the catalytic oxydehydrogenati on of fermentation-derived succinic anhydride to produce maleic anhydr ide. Various catalysts have been synthesized and tested for the oxydeh ydrogenation reaction. Iron phosphate based catalysts are found to be the best on the basis of high conversions and selectivities obtained. The effects of temperature, oxygen concentration, contact time, and th e total time on stream on the performance of the catalyst are investig ated, and an optimum set of conditions for the operation of the bench- scale reactor is presented. The bulk and surface compositions, the sur face areas, and the bulk crystallographic structure of the catalysts a re also reported.