(748d) Lignin-Derived Products from Biocrude As Building Block Chemicals

The production of chemicals as bioproducts in an integrated biorefinery could enhance the economic viability of biomass-to-liquid fuel technologies and afford a higher return on investment. RTI International is developing an advanced biofuels technology that integrates a catalytic biomass pyrolysis step and a hydroprocessing step to produce infrastructure compatible biofuels. In recent efforts, RTI is exploring and developing processes that could be used to produce bioproducts in addition to liquid fuel from the biocrude intermediate.

The present study explores distillation as a separation method for recovery of lignin-derived chemicals from biocrude. The biocrudes used were relatively thermally stable and distillable; they were produced from catalytic pyrolysis with a non-zeolite, alumina-based catalyst. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis indicated that the biocrude contained reasonable amount of lignin-derived compounds. The distillation studies were performed with a laboratory distillation unit (PETRODIST 300 CC) and the biocrude were fractionated into four distillate cuts: Cut 1 (IBP-110 °C), Cut 2 (110-200 °C), Cut 3 (200-300 ° C), and Cut 4 (300-400 °C). The yields, physicochemical properties, and chemical composition of the fractions as well as the overall distillation separation efficiency will be discussed.