In situ hydrodeoxygenation of heavy bio-oil using a Ce/Fe-based oxygen carrier in methanol-zero valent aluminum media.

Resource recovery from solid organic wastes, such as degradable plastics, and upgrading raw bio-oil are important ways for reducing carbon and pollution emissions. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a common thermochemical treatment to upgrade crude bio-oil. In this study, in order to realize in situ HDO during the hydropyrolysis of heavy bio-oil and degradable plastics, a reduced Fe/Ce oxygen carrier (OC) was used to catalytically remove oxygen from organics under the methanol-zero valent aluminum (ZV Al) media, where the hydrogen was produced during pyrolysis instead of a direct hydrogen supply. The results showed that the reduced OC captured the oxygen from the pyrolysis products of heavy bio-oil and degradable plastic, representing the multi-selectivity of reduced OC to phenols, ketones, etc. The ZV Al system promoted the production and utilization of hydrogen, as evidenced by the increased hydrogen content in gas phase and hydrocarbon content in liquid phase. The hydrocarbon component distribution in the liquid phase increased clearly when hydropyrolysis with degradable plastics addtion, but the excess degradable plastics addition caused increasing of the liquid product viscosity, and decreasing of the liquid products yield for the higher ash content in degradable plastic, and a higher ZV Al amount was required to maintain the hydropyrolysis. Molecular dynamics simulations verified the synergistic effect of degradable plastics and bio-oil by the pyrolysis behavior in different systems and temperatures, and the pyrolysis pathways were proposed. This non-autocatalytic system realized the resource recovery and heavy bio-oil upgrading using an Fe/Ce OC.

Phenol preparation from catalytic pyrolysis of palm kernel shell at low temperatures.

In the present study, the characteristics of phenol preparation from palm kernel shell (PKS) pyrolysis at the temperature range of 265-320 °C were investigated using TG-FTIR-MS analyses, based on the analysis about the decomposition characteristics of PKS comparing to other biomass samples. The GC-MS analysis was subsequently employed to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize the phenol in bio-oils from PKS catalytic pyrolysis at 265-320 °C. Two significant weight loss peaks with the closer values were observed in DTG curve of PKS that differentiated with other samples, which was mainly attributed to the content and especially the structural characteristics of lignin in the PKS. Phenol was mainly in bio-oils from decomposition of the "first weight loss peak" during PKS pyrolysis at 265-320 °C. The relative content in bio-oil, selectivity in phenolic compounds, and mass yield of phenol from PKS catalytic pyrolysis with CaO could reach to 83.21 area%, 100%, and 0.0075 g/(g biomass), respectively.