Feiyan Gong

Selective conversion of bio-oil to light olefins: controlling catalytic cracking for maximum olefins.

Light olefins are the basic building blocks for the petrochemical industry. In this work, selective production of light olefins from catalytic cracking of bio-oil was performed by using the La/HZSM-5 catalyst. With a nearly complete conversion of bio-oil, the maximum yield reached 0.28±0.02 kg olefins/(kg bio-oil), which was close to that from methanol. Addition of La into zeolite efficiently changed the total acid amount of HZSM-5, especially the acid distribution among the strong, medium and weak acid sites. A moderate increase of the number of the medium acid sites effectively enhanced the olefins selectivity and improved the catalyst stability. The comparison between the catalytic cracking and pyrolysis of bio-oil was studied. The mechanism of the conversion of bio-oil to light olefins was also discussed.

Production of light olefins by catalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass with HZSM-5 zeolite impregnated with 6 wt.% lanthanum.

Catalytic conversion of rice husk, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin into olefins was performed with HZSM-5 containing 6 wt.% lanthanum. The olefins yields for different feedstocks decreased in the order: cellulose>hemicellulose>sugarcane bagasse>rice husk>sawdust>lignin. Biomass containing higher content of cellulose or hemicellulose produced more olefins than feedstocks with higher content of lignin. Among the biomass types, sugarcane bagasse provided the highest olefin yield of 0.12 kg olefins/(kg dry biomass) and carbon yield of 21.2C-mol%. Temperature, residence time and the catalyst/feed ratio influenced olefin yield and selectivity. While the HZSM-5 zeolite was catalytically active, the incorporation of lanthanum at 2.9, and 6.0 wt.% increased the production of olefins from rice husk by 15.6% and 26.5%, respectively. The conversion of biomass to light olefins potentially provides an alternative and sustainable route for production of the key petrochemicals.

High efficient conversion of CO2-rich bio-syngas to CO-rich bio-syngas using biomass char: a useful approach for production of bio-methanol from bio-oil

A novel approach for high efficient conversion of the CO(2)-rich bio-syngas into the CO-rich bio-syngas was carried out by using biomass char and Ni/Al(2)O(3) catalyst, which was successfully applied for production of bio-methanol from bio-oil. After the bio-syngas conditioning, the CO(2)/CO ratio prominently dropped from 6.33 to 0.01-0.28. The maximum CO yield in the bio-syngas conditioning process reached about 1.96 mol/(mol CO(2)) with a nearly complete conversion of CO(2) (99.5%). The performance of bio-methanol synthesis was significantly improved via the conditioned bio-syngas, giving a maximum methanol yield of 1.32 kg/(kg(catalyst)h) with a methanol selectivity of 99%. Main reaction paths involved in the bio-syngas conditioning process have been investigated in detail by using different model mixture gases and different carbon sources.

Design of Multiple Metal Doped Ni Based Catalyst for Hydrogen Generation from Bio‐oil Reforming at Mild‐temperature

A new kind of multiple metal (Cu, Mg, Ce) doped Ni based mixed oxide catalyst, synthesized by the co‐precipitation method, was used for efficient production of hydrogen from bio‐oil reforming at 250–500 °C. Two reforming processes, the conventional steam reforming (CSR) and the electrochemical catalytic reforming (ECR), were performed for the bio‐oil reforming. The catalyst with an atomic mole ratio of Ni : Cu : Mg : Ce : Al =5.6:1.1:1.9:1.0:9.9 exhibited very high reforming activity both in CSR and ECR processes, reaching 82.8% hydrogen yield at 500 °C in the CSR, yield of 91.1% at 400 °C and 3.1 A in the ECR, respectively. The influences of reforming temperature and the current through the catalyst in the ECR were investigated. It was observed that the reforming and decomposition of the bio‐oil were significantly enhanced by the current. The promoting effects of current on the decomposition and reforming processes of bio‐oil were further studied by using the model compounds of bio‐oil (acetic acid and ethanol) under 101 kPa or low pressure (0.1 Pa) through the time of flight analysis. The catalyst also shows high water gas shift activity in the range of 300–600 °C. The catalyst features and alterations in the bio‐oil reforming were characterized by the ICP, XRD, XPS and BET measurements. The mechanism of bio‐oil reforming was discussed based on the study of the elemental reactions and catalyst characterizations. The research catalyst, potentially, may be a practical catalyst for high efficient production of hydrogen from reforming of bio‐oil at mild‐temperature.

Effects of Current on Microcosmic Properties of Catalyst and Reforming of Bio-oil

Highly effective production of hydrogen from bio-oil was achieved by using a low-temperature electrochemical catalytic reforming approach over the conventional Ni-based reforming catalyst (NiO-Al2O3), where an AC electronic current passed through the catalyst bed. The promoting effects of current on the bio-oil reforming were studied. It was found that the performance of the bio-oil reforming was remarkably enhanced by the current which passed through the catalyst. The effects of currents on the microcosmic properties of the catalyst, including the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, pore diameter, pore volume, the size of the crystallites and the reduction level of NiO into Ni, were carefully characterized by BET, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope. The desorption of the thermal electrons from the electrified catalyst was directly observed by the TOF (time of flight) measurements. The mechanism of the electrochemical catalytic reforming of bio-oil is discussed based on the above investigation.

Catalytic Transformation of Bio-oil to Olefins with Molecular Sieve Catalysts

Catalytic conversion of bio-oil into light olefins was performed by a series of molecular sieve catalysts, including HZSM-5, MCM-41, SAPO-34 and Y-zeolite. Based on the light olefins yield and its carbon selectivity, the production of light olefins decreased in the following order: HZSM-5>SAPO-34>MCM-41> Y-zeolite. The highest olefins yield from bio-oil using HZSM-5 catalyst reached 0.22 kg/kgbio-oil with carbon selectivity of 50.7% and a nearly complete bio-oil conversion. The reaction conditions and catalyst characterization were investigated in detail to reveal the relationship between the catalyst structure and the production of olefins. The comparison between the pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis of bio-oil was also performed.

Highly Efficient Synthesis of Clean Biofuels from Biomass Using FeCuZnAlK Catalyst

Highly efficient synthesis of clean biofuels using the bio-syngas obtained from biomass gasification was performed over Fe1.5 Cu 1 Zn 1Al1K0.117 catalyst. The maximum biofuel yield from the bio-syngas reaches about 1.59 kg biofuels/(kgcatal·h) with a contribution of 0.57 kg alcohols/(kgcatal·h) and 1.02 kg liquid hydrocarbons/(kgcatal·h). The alcohol products in the resulting biofuels were dominated by the C2+ alcohols (mainly C2—C6 alcohols) with a content of 73.55%–89.98%. The selectivity of the liquid hydrocarbons (C5+) in the hydrocarbon products ranges from 60.37% to 70.94%. The synthesis biofuels also possess a higher heat value of 40.53–41.49 MJ/kg. The effects of the synthesis conditions, including temperature, pressure, and gas hourly space velocity, on the biofuel synthesis were investigated in detail. The catalyst features were characterized by inductively coupled plasma and atomic emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction, and the N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms measurements. The present biofuel synthesis with a higher biofuel yield and a higher selectivity of liquid hydrocarbons and C2+ alcohols may be a potentially useful route to produce clean biofuels and chemicals from biomass.