11-20: Butanol synthesis from bioethanol in a catalytic process over hydroxyapatite

Colombian government has implemented rules to regulate the use of biofuels and in the case of gasoline 10% of bio-ethanol is mandatory. The target of this rule is to reduce the high levels of pollution from so-called greenhouse gases. Bio-ethanol is the oxygenated compound mixed with gasoline but it has shown different problems when used as biofuel, for these reasons, new researches to find other oxygenated compounds have been undertaken, and among them is butanol. This alcohol doesn’t present the problems shown by bioethanol and it can be obtained through clean methods, one of which consists of a catalytic process requiring to add one more unit to the fermentative process of bio-ethanol (a catalytic reactor), which causes no changes in existing infrastructure. The catalytic synthesis is carried out at high temperatures (about 300 and 500 °C), atmospheric pressures and over alkaline hydroxyapatites showing hydrogenation properties catalytic. In this research we present the experimental results of the synthetic process of butanol using hydroxyapatites as catalyst; we have obtained selectivity of up 60% for butanol and its isomers (tert-butanol, 2-butanol and iso-butanol) at conversions of 20%.