Pyrolysis oil is a renewable resource derived from biomass and can be viewed as a potential crude oil substitute or extender.  Pyrolysis oil has several undesirable properties including a very high acid and water content.  Because of the high acid content, pyrolysis oil will likely be blended with conventional crude processing, lowering the overall acid content of the mixture and mitigating the corrosivity toward refining units. Pyrolysis oil contains polar and non-polar organics, water, and particulates.  These components can be difficult to homogenize and, if left standing, may again separate.  Additionally, pyrolysis oil will thicken with time as components react to form higher molecular weight products.ASTM D664 �Standard Test Method for Acid Number of Petroleum Products by Potentiometric Titration� is often used for determining the acid content of pyrolysis oils. However, D664 was developed specifically for petroleum based lubricants.  The D664 solvent system is unsuited for use with pyrolysis oil, failing to completely solubilize the pyrolysis oil and yielding unreliable results.   This work addresses two related problems with pyrolysis oil.  The first is obtaining and maintaining a stable, homogenous sample for analyses that is representative of the material to be analyzed.  The second issue is development of a reliable acid titration.  A simple solvent system has been devised that produces stable, homogeneous solutions and allows D664 to return highly repeatable acid numbers on pyrolysis oil.

Development of an acid titration for fast pyrolysis oil

248th National Meeting (2014)

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