The conversion of biomass into biomass pyrolysis oil (BPO) is an important step in decreasing dependence on non-renewable energy sources. BPO can be hydroprocessed and distributed by the existing infrastructure used for petroleum-derived fuels with relatively minor equipment modifications. The adaptability of BPO makes this technology a critical stepping-stone from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.Lignocellulosic biomass is composed of three biopolymers: lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. A lignin pyrolysis reaction network was automatically generated using INGen (the Interactive Network Generator), a software tool developed by the Klein research group. The existing lignin pyrolysis model has been expanded to include cellulose and hemicellulose via olefin, alcohol, aldehyde, ketone, and furan chemistries. The incorporation of these chemistries results in a complete biomass pyrolysis model that consists of tens of thousands of species and corresponding molecule-based chemical reactions with algebraic and differential equations that are automatically generated and solved by KME (the Kinetic Modeling Editor).The resulting kinetic model will be put in a process context to optimize the overall conversion of biomass to liquid transportation fuels. Using these tools, accurate biomass-to-fuels model predictions will lead to the efficient selection of the plant feedstocks that will produce the desired species at the mildest reaction conditions. Moving forward, rapid generation and solution of complex molecular-level models will allow for real-time adjustments to operating conditions and species compositions in laboratory- and industrial-scale systems to maximize yield and profit.

Modeling biomass-to-fuels processing

246th National Meeting (2013)

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