(498f) 13C NMR Spectroscopic Investigation of the Effects of Functional Groups on Catalytic Pyrolysis Oil Properties

 13C
NMR spectroscopic investigation of the effects of functional groups on catalytic
pyrolysis oil properties.

Ofei
D. Mante^a 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.