(131a) The Effect of Nitrogen and Sulfur Containing Molecules on Standard Methods for Accurate Determination of Oxygenates in Bio-Oils

Several thermochemical routes exist for deconstructing solid cellulosic biomass to produce bio-oil, including thermal pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction. Historically, due to the complex nature of bio-oil, there have been large gaps in available analytical information. Bio-oil analysis, for raw oils and upgraded oils, requires time consuming and difficult analytical methods for quantitative identification of species present in the oil. These measurements are necessary for evaluating chemical differences between pyrolysis oils, evaluating the activity and selectivity of catalysts used to upgrade oil, and they are vital for evaluating the fuel quality (and subsequent blending limitations) of the oil. To address our knowledge of chemical active sites in the oils we extensively tested standardized methods to accurately describe oxygenates present in pyrolysis oils. In recent work conducted we have investigated the applicability of these methods for oils rich in sulfur and nitrogen such as HTL oil based on algae. We found that the presence of some sulfur and nitrogen functional groups in bio-oil can affect the values generated by methods that were developed to measure the oxygen content in bio-oils. A discussion of the study will be presented.