The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy established a vision to derive 25% of chemicals and materials and 20% of transportation fuels from biomass by 2030. The pyrolysis of biomass, including biomass components, such as the second most abundant biomass component and major natural aromatic resource � lignin, is a promising approach to use this resource. The products of pyrolysis, known as pyrolysis oil, however have several challenging properties including instability, poor volatility, high viscosity, corrosiveness and cold flow problems. These problems have limited the practical application of pyrolysis oils. Therefore, bio-oils must be upgraded before use as a replacement for diesel and gasoline fuels. Hydrogenation and ring opening with hydrotreating catalysts are the promising routes to upgrade pyrolysis oils.This effort will focus on the ring opening mechanisms for aromatic model compounds, including benzene, toluene, xylene and guaiacol. Deuterium labelling and NMR will be employed to facilitate the exploration of reaction pathways. The proposed intermediates and reaction pathways will be further evaluated by computational calculation.

Aromatic model compounds ring opening on Ir/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> � a mechanistic study by deuterium tracing and NMR

247th National Meeting (2014)

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Aromatic model compounds ring opening on Ir/Al2O3 � a mechanistic study by deuterium tracing and NMR

Aromatic model compounds ring opening on Ir/Al₂O₃ � a mechanistic study by deuterium tracing and NMR