Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) Catalysis

Hazardous acidic or basic catalysts in industrial scale processes need safer alternatives.  One such example is the alkylation of isoparaffin to produce high-octane gasoline, which is catalyzed by concentrated hydrofluoric or sulfuric acids, using roughly the same volume of acid as the hydrocarbon. This not only adds cost to the process to make and regenerate the acid; but more importantly, refineries must manage the large quantities of waste acid to avoid serious harm to the environment.

A new system called Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysis has been proposed as an alternative to these hazardous acids. While SILPs have been applied to a number of different reactions, Dr. Scurto’s group uses a liquid mixture of a non-volatile and molecularly-tunable ionic liquid and soluble catalyst to coat a solid support at the micro-/meso- scale (Figure 7). The IL phase sequesters and influences the reaction and separation for many potential catalysts, while the solid support provides large surface area for increased mass transfer over traditional gas-liquid or liquid-liquid processes. This also reduces the amount of ionic liquid used in the process, improving the economics [59-70].

Students will learn how to synthesize SILPs with different ionic liquids to explore gas phase C4 alkylation. They will learn how to characterize the catalysts with specialized equipment, such as a tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM).