Reactions of furfural and acetic acid as model compounds for bio-oil upgrading in supercritical ethanol

Abstract

The reactions of bio-oil model compounds furfural/acetic acid were carried out using supported Nickel catalysts in supercritical ethanol at 260 °C. The catalysts were prepared through the dry impregnation method with Al2(SiO3)3, SO42-/ZrO2/SBA-15 as the solid acid supports. The textural properties of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), and N2 temperature programmed adsorption/desorption (N2-TPD). The liquid products were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and the recovered catalysts were evaluated by the thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermogravimetry (DTG) after 3 hours reaction. The results indicated that acetic acid was completely removed and the amount of aldehydes decreased evidently. The reaction in supercritical ethanol under pressured H <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> is the combination of several basic upgrading reactions including hydrodeoxygenation, hydrogenation, catalytic cracking, esterification, and rearrangement. Based on the products analysis, reaction pathway for furfural conversion was discussed in this work