Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of bio‐oil model compound for production of fuel grade oil

Abstract

AbstractBio‐oil, a promising renewable fuel candidate obtained from the hydrothermal liquefaction/pyrolysis of agricultural waste, contains significant amount of oxygen in the form of oxygenated compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, aliphatic/aromatic acids, alcohols, and ethers. This prevents it from being used directly as a fuel. Technologies that can lower the oxygen content of bio‐oil are desired. The present work was driven towards the deoxygenation of bio‐oil. To understand the mechanism of deoxygenation, guaiacol was selected as a model compound. The deoxygenating ability of acid site (support) and hydrogenation ability of metal were leveraged in this work. Highly acidic mixed oxide support such as ZrO2–Al2O3 was used to synthesize a bimetal catalyst Ni–Mo/ZrO2–Al2O3, and the said catalyst was used for deoxygenation of bio‐oil/model compound in tetralin as hydrogen donor solvent. The effects of reaction time, temperature, and hydrogen pressure on the conversion were examined. Results showed that 100% guaiacol conversion was obtained with 45.3% phenol and 11.1% cyclohexane yield at 330°C and 30‐bar H2 pressure and reaction time of 10 hr.