(536e) Facile Conversion of Aqueous Phase Biomass Catalytic Pyrolysis Liquids into Hydrocarbons As a Wastewater Treatment Solution.

The production of both conventional and catalytic pyrolysis oils always generates a liquid fraction that has very high water content and a very low organic fraction. This aqueous phase has to be treated for disposal in any large biofuels processing facility. Several methods have been proposed for disposing of such liquids. We investigated the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of aqueous-phase pinyon-juniper catalytic pyrolysis liquid using a new multi-functional red mud-supported nickel (Ni/RM) catalyst. The organic liquid yield after HDO of the liquid using 30 wt % Ni/RM at a reaction temperature of 350 °C was 47.8 wt % with an oxygen content of 1.14 wt %. The organic liquid fraction consisted of aliphatics, aromatics, and alkylated aromatic hydrocarbons which formed two phases with the aqueous phase. After decantation the aqueous phase contained more than 99% water. This method presents an alternative method for treating of the aqueous phase while simultaneously recovering the organic fraction as hydrocarbon fuels. The RM support catalyzed ketonization of carboxylic acids. The Ni metal catalyzed partial reduction of oxygenates that underwent carbonyl alkylation with aldehydes and ketones on the RM. Catalyst deactivation assessment suggested that oxidation and coke formation were the main controlling factors for deactivation of Ni and RM, respectively. For comparison, commercial (∼65 wt %) Ni/SiO2−Al2O3 was tested in HDO experiments, which gasified the soluble organics in the aqueous phase and did not produce liquid hydrocarbons but produced mostly methane.