Biomass is a renewable energy source expected to play a substantial role in the future global energy balance. Lignocellulosic biomass can be converted to fuels and chemicals via thermochemical and biological processes. The thermochemical conversion comprises mainly the biomass gasification and biomass pyrolysis (slow or fast). Biomass gasification produces syngas (CO+H2) which can be used in the classical Fischer-Tropsch process to produce gasoline and diesel range hydrocarbons as well as paraffinic waxes. The biomass pyrolysis, and mainly the fast pyrolysis of biomass (BFP) leads to the production of pyrolysis oil (bio-oil) which can reach up to ca. 70-80 wt.% of initial dry biomass, the rest being gases (mainly CO and CO2) and char. Bio-oil can be utilized as a low-quality fuel in thermal power stations and gas turbines or it can be upgraded to transportation fuels via down-stream catalytic processing. Catalytic cracking or hydrotreatment of bio-oil (in mixtures with petroleum fractions) using conventional refinery processes can lead to the production of the so-called �green gasoline� and �green diesel�. In addition, bio-oil can serve as a source of platform chemicals, such as phenols, furans, and others. However, bio-oil exhibits some major drawbacks as it is highly oxygenated, corrosive, relative unstable and becomes viscous due to gradual polymerization. The use of catalysts (instead of inert solids used as heat carriers) in the BFP process, i.e. the catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass, offers a promising alternative for the in situ upgrading/fine-tuning of bio-oil's composition and properties. In this paper we present an overview of our recent results on the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass using various types of mesoporous catalytic materials in comparison to the more classical microporous zeolitic catalysts. The effect of porosity, morphology and acidity or basicity of the catalysts is discussed.

Mesoporous catalytic materials for biomass valorization to fuels and chemicals

248th National Meeting (2014)

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