Catalytic upgrading of bio-oils derived from terrestrial and marine biomass over various types of zeolites

Abstract

Effects of biomass type and zeolite catalyst type on bio-oil upgrading were investigated in this study, in which terrestrial (rice husk and cedar) and marine (eelgrass) biomass and various commercial zeolites with different frameworks including H-USY, H-Mordenite, H-Ferrierite, H-ZSM-5, H-Beta zeolites were used. The catalytic performance of each catalyst was evaluated with a Py/GC-MS instrument. Thereafter, in-situ catalytic upgrading of the bio-oil derived from fast pyrolysis over those zeolite catalysts with high activity and selectivity towards aromatic hydrocarbons were further investigated in a fixed bed reactor. A highest aromatic hydrocarbons yield up to 77.28% in the upgraded bio-oil was achieved when using eelgrass as the biomass feedstock and a H-ZSM-5–40 zeolite as the catalyst. In addition, the spent catalysts after used for several times can be well regenerated only via a simple calcination at 550 °C for 2 h in air, which showed similar activity as the fresh one. It is expected that such a zeolite catalyst can be applied for the bio-oil upgrading in an industrial scale.