Direct conversion of biomass to bio-petroleum at low temperature

Rice straw was pyrolysed in a simple closed reactor. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the yields of the products were investigated. Pyrolysis runs were performed at pyrolysis temperatures between 553 and 773 K with heating rates of 10 K/min. The pressure of the system increased with the rising temperature. The maximum yield of liquid products was obtained at 693 K with H/C molar ratio of 1.65 and O/C molar ratio of 0.058 just in the range of petroleum, so we called the liquid oil as bio-petroleum. The results of 1H NMR and FT-IR showed that a great amount of alkyl functional groups existed in the oil, which confirmed the presence of alkanes and alkyl aromatic compounds. This conclusion was consistent with the result of GC–MS.