(237b) Production of Transportation Fuels Range Hydrocarbons From Pyrolysis Oil Via A Low Hydrogen Catalytic Deoxygenation

Biomass derived fast pyrolysis oil is a potential alternative replacement for conventional fuels. But the negative properties such as lower energy density, higher water content and acidity prevent the direct use of pyrolysis oil as a fuel. Conversion of pyrolysis oil to hydrocarbons has been successfully performed by deoxygenation with hydroprocessing catalysis with high heat and pressure. However, rapid deactivation of the catalysts and consumption of a large amount of expensive hydrogen have remained a problem for this technology and have prevented commercialization. Therefore, development of an efficient and reduced hydrogen deoxygenation method would be desirable. In this study, we have developed recently a bio-oil pretreatment method patent pending by oxidation to produce an acidified product. This pretreatment of raw bio-oil process allowed to performance of a partial deoxygenation step with a low amount of hydrogen during the hydroprocessing of bio-oil. This partially deoxygenated product was then fully deoxygenated with pure hydrogen to produce mixed hydrocarbons. Properties of the resultant hydrocarbon fuels were analyzed by ASTM standards for transportation fuels. The hydrocarbon mixture obtained by our process was analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) to identify all compounds in the fuel. Detailed hydrocarbon analysis (DHA) was performed to provide the carbon numbers associated with the hydrocarbons. Simulated distillation was performed to analyze the gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fractions comprising the hydrocarbon mixture.

Keywords: Pyrolysis oil, oxidation, deoxygention, hydroprocessing, GC-MS and DHA.