Liquid fuels generation via flash pyrolysis of biomass followed by thermochemical upgrading has been a research topic for many years. The bio-oil produced from this process is a complex mixture of hundreds of organic and inorganic compounds. The reactive species in bio-oil complicate storage, transportation, and downstream processing because of secondary reactions. Currently these oils require a complex three-stage process operating at moderate temperatures between 433 and 678 K, but high hydrogen pressures of 14,000 kPa. The process economics are limited by the high pressure hydrogen requirement. Recent research suggests that the hydrogenation reactions can be performed using electrochemical reactors operating at much lower temperatures and pressures (293 K and 101 kPa).<br/><br/>In this work, we propose a mixed electrocatalytic and acid-base process for low cost bio-oil upgrading. Progress on the development of heterogeneous electrocatalysts and electrocatalytic continuous flow reactors for the hydrogenation of organic molecules will be presented. In particular, we studied the effect of electrolyte composition, concentration of substrate, cell potential, and current on the Faraday efficiency (FE) and catalytic activity (TOF) for the electrochemical reduction of organic molecules at normal temperature and pressure. Our results suggest that Pd is the most active metal of the metals we examined. Further, we found strong correlations between reaction conditions, TOF, and FE. Finally, we will present results on electrocatalytic hydrogenation of simple mixtures of probe molecules which are representative of compounds found in bio-oil.

Progress towards electrochemical processes for low-temperature and low-pressure bio-oil hydrogenation

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.