1LE-3 Chemical upgrading of biomass pyrolysis oil in supercritical organic solvents

Bio-oil derived from lignocellulosic biomass cannot be directly used as a fuel in internal combustion engines for cars, planes and ships due to low heating value, high acidity, high viscosity and chemical instability. Chemical upgrading of bio-oil has been studied to obtain hydrocarbon fuels like diesel or gasoline. Hydrodeoxygenation is considered an attractive upgrading method because of a high possibility for commercialization in technical point of view. A drawback of this technology is to require huge amounts of hydrogen. Upgrading of bio-oil in supercritical fluids is rising as an alternative to hydrodeoxygenation. In this method supercritical fluids produce active forms of hydrogen which reacts with oxygen in bio-oil. Simple organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, acetone, and formic acid were examined as supercritical fluids for upgrading pyrolysis oil with and without Mg-Ni-Mo/activated charcoal catalyst at our laboratory and results will be explained in the presentation.