skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Catalytic Upgrading of Biomass Pyrolysis Oxygenates with Vacuum Gas Oil Using a Davison Circulating Riser Reactor

Journal Article · · Energy and Fuels
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15523 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
+ Show Author Affiliations

We investigate and quantitate the changes in hydrocarbon product composition while evaluating the performance and operability of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Davison Circulating Riser (DCR) reactor system when biomass model compounds are cofed with traditional fluid catalyst cracking (FCC) feeds and catalyst: vacuum gas oil (VGO) and equilibrium zeolite catalyst (E-Cat). Three compounds (acetic acid, guaiacol, and sorbitan monooleate) were selected to represent the major classes of oxygenates present in biomass pyrolysis vapors. These vapors can contain 30-50% oxygen as oxygenates, which create conversion complications (increased reactivity and coking) when integrating biomass vapors and liquids into fuel and chemical processes long dominated by petroleum feedstocks. We used these model compounds to determine the appropriate conditions for coprocessing with petroleum and ultimately pure pyrolysis vapors only as compared with standard baseline conditions obtained with VGO and E-Cat only in the DCR. Model compound addition decreased the DCR catalyst circulation rate, which controls reactor temperature and measures reaction heat demand, while increasing catalyst coking rates. Liquid product analyses included 2-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (2D GCxGC TOFS), simulated distillation (SIM DIST), 13C NMR, and carbonyl content. Aggregated results indicated that the model compounds were converted during reaction, and despite functional group differences, product distributions for each model compound were very similar. In addition, we determined that adding model compounds to the VGO feed did not significantly affect the DCR's operability or performance. Future work will assess catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapor to fungible hydrocarbon products using upgrading catalysts currently being developed at NREL and at Johnson Matthey.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1424825
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1422870; OSTI ID: 1508564
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-64865
Journal Information:
Energy and Fuels, Journal Name: Energy and Fuels Vol. 32 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 0887-0624
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (20)

Transformation of Oxygenate Components of Biomass Pyrolysis Oil on a HZSM-5 Zeolite. II. Aldehydes, Ketones, and Acids journal May 2004
Recent advances in heterogeneous catalysts for bio-oil upgrading via “ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis”: catalyst development through the study of model compounds journal January 2014
A review and perspective of recent bio-oil hydrotreating research journal January 2014
Effect of phenol addition on the performances of H–Y zeolite during methylcyclohexane transformation journal January 2009
Determination of Carbonyl Functional Groups in Bio-oils by Potentiometric Titration: The Faix Method journal January 2017
Catalytic cracking in the presence of guaiacol journal January 2011
Catalytic cracking of mixtures of model bio-oil compounds and gasoil journal August 2009
Second-generation biofuels by co-processing catalytic pyrolysis oil in FCC units journal February 2014
Upgrading biomass fast pyrolysis liquids journal April 2012
Pyrolysis of Wood/Biomass for Bio-oil: A Critical Review journal May 2006
Co-processing of standard gas oil and biocrude oil to hydrocarbon fuels journal October 2012
Biomass pyrolysis: a state-of-the-art review journal September 2008
Fast pyrolysis oil from pinewood chips co-processing with vacuum gas oil in an FCC unit for second generation fuel production journal January 2017
Analysis of Oxygenated Compounds in Hydrotreated Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil Distillate Fractions journal November 2011
Deactivation of FCC catalysts journal September 2008
Determination of Carbonyl Groups of Six Round Robin Lignins by Modified Oximation and FTIR Spectroscopy journal January 1998
Processing biomass-derived oxygenates in the oil refinery: Catalytic cracking (FCC) reaction pathways and role of catalyst journal April 2007
Catalytic cracking of pyrolysis oil oxygenates (aliphatic and aromatic) with vacuum gas oil and their characterization journal August 2014
Overview of Applications of Biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil journal March 2004
Transformation of Oxygenate Components of Biomass Pyrolysis Oil on a HZSM-5 Zeolite. I. Alcohols and Phenols journal May 2004

Figures / Tables (21)

Table 1(p. 2)table Table 1
Figure 1(p. 3)figure Figure 1
Table 2(p. 3)table Table 2
Table 3(p. 3)table Table 3
Figure 2(p. 4)figure Figure 2
Table 4(p. 4)table Table 4
Table 5(p. 4)table Table 5
Figure 3(p. 5)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 6)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 6)figure Figure 5
Table 6(p. 6)table Table 6
Table 7(p. 6)table Table 7
Figure 6(p. 7)figure Figure 6
Figure 10(p. 8)figure Figure 10
Figure 7(p. 8)figure Figure 7
Figure 8(p. 8)figure Figure 8
Figure 9(p. 8)figure Figure 9
Figure 11(p. 9)figure Figure 11
Figure 12(p. 9)figure Figure 12
Figure 13(p. 10)figure Figure 13
Table 8(p. 10)table Table 8

Similar Records

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
Davison Circulating Riser
reactor system
biomass compounds
fluid catalysts