Synthesis of ZnO-CoO/Al2O3 nanoparticles and its application as a catalyst in ethanol conversion to acetone

In this work, ZnO-CoO/Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized and used as a catalyst for the dehydrogenation of ethanol to produce acetone. The catalyst was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) to identify the particle size and surface area, which were found to be 50 ± 5 nm and 23 ± 2 m2/g, respectively. In addition, Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to scan the synthesized catalyst to determine the crystallinity of the bulk. The impact of reaction temperature, water/ethanol molar ratio, and inlet flow rate on the ethanol conversion and products’ yields was investigated. The results show that the optimum reaction conditions which give an ethanol conversion of 97% and the highest acetone yield (45%) are as follows: Temp. 400 °C, 7 mol H2O:1 mol ethanol, and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) 1.2 hr−1.