Hidrokarburo aromatikoen ekoizpena CO2-aren balorizazio zuzenaren bidez

Abstract

The sustained rise in greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly becoming an important issue in the society, as these are the main cause of the climate change, especially the CO2. The chemical industry is the area with higher CO2 emissions, making the optimization of the main processes of this industry a current challenge. Among others, by reducing CO2 emissions as much as possible, and by capturing and using it as raw material in the production of value-added products, such as aromatic hydrocarbons. The demand of aromatic compounds (mainly benzene, toluene and xylene) is steadily increasing due to their use in the synthesis of a growing number of products for daily use (plastics, pigments or detergents). The synthesis of aromatic hydrocarbons by means of CO2 hydrogenation can be carried out through two main routes: (i) Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and (ii) with oxygenates (methanol and DME) as intermediates. In this work, the main catalysts, operating conditions and reaction mechanisms of both processes have been studied, through a deep bibliographic research. In addition, the differences among the processes and the main advantages and disadvantages of each one have been analyzed.