Abstract
Nine different catalysts were tested for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of simulated bio-oil which is comprised of a mixture of distill water, acetic- acid, acetol, furfural, phenol, guaiacol and eugenol. The tested catalysts include MoFeP, MoFeP/Al2O3, MoFeP/SiO2, MoO3/Al2O3, MoO3/SiO2, FePO4/Al2O3, FePO4/SiO2, Ru-MoFeP/Al2O3 and Ru-MoFeP/SiO2. The reaction conditions for all testing experiments were, temperature: 400℃, total pressure: 20 bar, H2 partial pressure: 14.7 bar, N2: 1.5 bar, weight of catalyst: 4 g, feeding rate: 0.04 ml/min, total reaction time: 9 h, WHSV excluding water: 0.94 h-1. The experiments showed that the catalysts had significant activity towards all the reactants, except phenol, which was the most difficult component to show conversion. The activity of catalysts followed the order Ru-MoFeP/Al2O3 > Ru-MoFeP/SiO2 > MoO3/Al2O3 > MoO3/SiO2 > MoFeP/Al2O3 > MoFeP/SiO2 > MoFeP > FePO4/Al2O3 > FePO4/SiO2, indicating that Ru-promoted MoFeP based catalyst can highly hydrogenate phenol’s aromatic ring. On the contrary, the FePO4 based catalyst showed the least activity among all.
Overall, the project is mostly targeted towards synthesis, characterization and application of MoFeP based, MoO3 based and FePO4 based catalysts, that have been studied for application under industrially relevant conditions. By using simulated bio-oil as feedstock, the Ru cluster promoted catalyst showed remarkable selectivity to C-O phenolic bonds cleavage, towards high yield of biofuel production. A significant hydrodeoxygenation degree was observed for the Ru-promoted catalyst as compared to bulk and supported MoFeP catalysts.
