13C NMR spectroscopic investigation of the effects of functional groups on catalytic pyrolysis oil properties.
Ofei D. Mantea and F. A. Agblevor b,
aDepartment of Sustainable Energy Technologies, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY
bUSTAR Bioenergy Center, Department of Biological Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The production of infrastructure-ready biocrude oil from catalytic pyrolysis offers an opportunity to co-process biomass derived intermediates alongside petroleum feedstocks such as atmospheric gas oil and vacuum gas oil in standard refinery units. Recent studies suggest that, up to 20wt% of upgraded bio-oils can be directly cracked in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process with these petroleum feedstocks without affecting the yields. Nevertheless, one of the critical success factors for commercial scale bio-oil co-processing is the physicochemical properties of the upgraded bio-oil. Since the upgrade bio-oil produced in catalytic pyrolysis is not completely free of oxygenated species, there is the need to fundamentally understand the impact of its chemical composition on the physicochemical properties. In this work, several upgraded bio-oils with varying fuel qualities produced from catalytic pyrolysis of different biomass feedstocks with HZSM-5 were characterized. Using 13C NMR spectroscopy, we were able to gain insights on the effect of the various functional groups on the physicochemical fuel properties: long-term storage stability, acidity, viscosity, density, solid residue, and elemental composition. The evidence from this investigation suggests that residual oxygenated species such as phenolics, anhydrosugars, and carbonyls continue to negatively impact the fuel properties of even upgraded bio-oils with low oxygen content levels (e.g.,12 wt.%.). In this talk, we will also discuss the opportunities and challenges of utilizing biocrude oil as a feed for standard refinery units.
See more of this Group/Topical: 2015 International Congress on Energy