Marlon B.B. de Almeida

Gasoline from Biomass through Refinery-Friendly Carbohydrate-Based Bio-Oil Produced by Ketalization

The introduction of biomass-derived compounds as an alternative feed into the refinery structure that already exists can potentially converge energy uses with ecological sustainability. Herein, we present an approach to produce a bio-oil based on carbohydrate-derived isopropylidene ketals obtained by reaction with acetone under acidic conditions directly from second-generation biomass. The obtained bio-oil showed a greater chemical inertness and miscibility with gasoil than typical bio-oil from fast pyrolysis. Catalytic upgrading of the bio-oil over zeolites (USY and Beta) yielded gasoline with a high octane number. Moreover, the co-processing of gasoil and bio-oil improved the gasoline yield and quality compared to pure gasoil and also reduced the amount of oxygenated compounds and coke compared with pure bio-oil, which demonstrates a synergistic effect.

Production of lignocellulosic gasoline using fast pyrolysis of biomass and a conventional refining scheme

Abstract This paper shows how some existing refining technologies such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) can be modified to process bio-oil, derived from agricultural lignocellulosic wastes such as the sugar cane straw. Tests carried out in demonstration scale (150 kg/h) show the potential of these alternative materials to produce lignocellulosic gasoline or aromatic compounds, suitable to the petrochemical industry.

Quantification of real thermal, catalytic, and hydrodeoxygenated bio-oils via comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

The elucidation of bio-oil composition is important to evaluate the processes of biomass conversion and its upgrading, and to suggest the proper use for each sample. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) is a widely applied analytical approach for bio-oil investigation due to the higher separation and resolution capacity from this technique. This work addresses the issue of analytical performance to assess the comprehensive characterization of real bio-oil samples via GC×GC-TOFMS. The approach was applied to the individual quantification of compounds of real thermal (PWT), catalytic process (CPO), and hydrodeoxygenation process (HDO) bio-oils. Quantification was performed with reliability using the analytical curves of oxygenated and hydrocarbon standards as well as the deuterated internal standards. The limit of quantification was set at 1ngµL-1 for major standards, except for hexanoic acid, which was set at 5ngµL-1. The GC×GC-TOFMS method provided good precision (<10%) and excellent accuracy (recovery range of 70-130%) for the quantification of individual hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds in real bio-oil samples. Sugars, furans, and alcohols appear as the major constituents of the PWT, CPO, and HDO samples, respectively. In order to obtain bio-oils with better quality, the catalytic pyrolysis process may be a better option than hydrogenation due to the effective reduction of oxygenated compound concentrations and the lower cost of the process, when hydrogen is not required to promote deoxygenation in the catalytic pyrolysis process.

Characteristics of Bio-oil from the Fast Pyrolysis of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

Bio-oil was obtained from the fast pyrolysis of elephant grass in a semi-pilot scale pyrolysis plant equipped with a 40 kg/h fluidized bed reactor. The temperature varied between 480 and 520°C. The biomass (moisture of 10%) was fed with a rate between 20 and 35 kg/h. Approximately 4.5 kg of sand was used as fluidizing agent. The pyrolytic oil was analyzed for the contents of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen and sulfur. Water content, acidity, pH, viscosity at 40°C, density and higher heating value were also determined. Chromatographic analysis showed that it was composed mostly of acetic acid, syringol, vinyl-phenol, guaiacol and hexanoic acid. Main results are used to compare the influence of different configurations of a gas-washing column and vapor condensation system on the properties of the bio-oil. Original Research Article Sousa et al.; ACSJ, 14(2): 1-10, 2016; Article no.ACSJ.25843 2