Selective production of nicotyrine from catalytic fast pyrolysis of tobacco biomass with Pd/C catalyst

• Nicotyrine was selectively produced from catalytic fast pyrolysis of tobacco with Pd/C catalyst.
• Temperature and catalyst-to-tobacco ratio affected the product distribution greatly.
• The nicotyrine yield reached as high as 2.80 wt%.
• The Pd/C catalyst performed better than the AC, Ru/C and Pd/SBA-15 catalysts to produce nicotyrine.

A new technique was proposed to selectively produce nicotyrine, a valuable alkaloidal product, from catalytic fast pyrolysis of tobacco mixed with the Pd/C catalyst. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) experiments were performed to investigate the effects of pyrolysis temperature and catalyst-to-tobacco ratio on the selective nicotyrine production. The actual nicotyrine yields under different reaction conditions were quantitatively determined. Moreover, the catalytic activity of the Pd/C catalyst was compared with those of the activated carbon (AC), Ru/C and Pd/SBA-15 catalysts. The results indicated that during the catalytic fast pyrolysis process, the Pd/C catalyst possessed promising dehydrogenation capability to selectively convert the nicotine in tobacco into the nicotyrine, and it performed much better than the other three catalysts. The maximal nicotyrine yield reached as high as 2.80 wt%, obtained at the pyrolysis temperature of 400 °C and catalyst-to-tobacco ratio of 2.