Stabilization of Softwood-Derived Pyrolysis Oils for Continuous Bio-oil Hydroprocessing

Journal Article · Thu Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Topics in Catalysis

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-015-0505-7· OSTI ID:1252841

Olarte, Mariefel V.; Zacher, Alan H.; Padmaperuma, Asanga B.; Burton, Sarah D.; Job, Heather M.; Lemmon, Teresa L.; Swita, Marie S.; Rotness, Leslie J.; Neuenschwander, Gary N.; Frye, John G.; Elliott, Douglas C.

The use of fast pyrolysis as a potential renewable liquid transportation fuel alternative to crude oil depends on successful catalytic upgrading to produce a refinery-ready product with oxygen content and qualities (i.e. specific functional group or compound content) that is compatible with the product’s proposed insertion point. Catalytic upgrading of bio-oil requires high temperature and pressure, while similar to crude oil hydrotreating, is not as straightforward for the thermally unstable pyrolysis oil. For years, a two-temperature zone, downflow trickle bed reactor was the state-of-the art for continuous operation. However, pressure excursion due to plug formation still occurred, typically at the high temperature transition zone, leading to a process shutdown within 140 h. Recently, a bio-oil pre-treatment process, together with a robust commercial catalyst, was found to be enabling the continuous operation of the two-zone hydroprocessing system. Here, we report the results on pre-treating bio-oil at 413 K and 8.4 MPa of flowing H2 (500 L H2/L bio-oil, 0.5 L bio-oil/L catalyst bed) and the attempts to characterize this oil product to understand the chemistry which enabled the long-term processing of bio-oil.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1252841
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-111135; 48420; 48173; BM0102060
• Journal Information: Topics in Catalysis, Journal Name: Topics in Catalysis Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 59; ISSN 1022-5528
• Publisher: Springer
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
carbonyls
catalytic upgrading
pyrolysis oils
stabilization