Catalytic conversion of carboxylic acids in bio-oil for liquid hydrocarbons production

Bio-oil must be upgraded to be suitable for use as a high-grade transport fuel. Crude bio-oil has a high content of carboxylic acids which can cause corrosion, and the high oxygen content of these acids also reduces the oil’s heating value. In this paper, acetic acid and propanoic acid were chosen as the model carboxylic acids in bio-oil. Their behavior in the production of liquid hydrocarbons during a catalytic conversion process was investigated in a micro-fixed bed reactor. The liquid organic phase from this catalytic conversion process mainly consisted of liquid hydrocarbons and phenol derivatives. Under the condition of low Liquid Hourly Space Velocity (LHSV), the liquid organic phase from acetic acid cracking had a selectivity of 22% for liquid hydrocarbons and a selectivity of 65% for phenol derivatives. The composition of the organic products changed considerably with the LHSV increasing to 3 h−1. The selectivity for liquid hydrocarbons increased up to 52% while that for phenol derivatives decreased to 32%. Propanoic acid performed much better in producing liquid hydrocarbons than acetic acid. Its selectivity for liquid hydrocarbons was as high as 80% at LHSV = 3 h−1. A mechanism for this catalytic conversion process was proposed according to the analysis of the components in the liquid organic phases. The pathways of the main compounds formation in the liquid organic phases were proposed, and the reason why liquid hydrocarbons were more effectively produced when using propanoic acid rather than acetic acid was also successfully explained. In addition, BET and SEM characterization were used to analyze the catalyst coke deposition.

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► High content of carboxylic acids in bio-oil causes its corrosiveness.
► Acetic acid and propanoic acid are two dominant acids in bio-oil.
► Liquid hydrocarbons were produced by cracking of these two dominant acids.
► A mechanism model was proposed to explain the product formation pathways.
► Cracking performances between acetic acid and propanoic acid were compared.