Recent advances in the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass

Abstract

Biomass is considered as a renewable and alternative resource for the production of fuels and chemicals, since it is the only carbon and hydrogen containing resource that we can find in the world except for fossil resources, capable of being converted to hydrocarbons. The pyrolytic liquefaction of biomass is a promising way to convert biomass to useful products. This paper briefly surveys the present status of the direct catalytic pyrolysis for the liquefaction of biomass. The direct use of catalysts could decrease the pyrolysis temperature, increase the conversion of biomass and the yield of bio-oil, and change the distribution of the pyrolytic liquid products then improve the quality of the bio-oil obtained. The fact that biomass is in solid state present great challenges for its conversion and for the effective use of catalysts due to the bad heat transfer characteristics and bad mass transfer properties. These barriers appeal for the development of a new catalyst and new catalytic process as well as the integration of both. Process design and process intensification are of significant importance in the catalytic conversion of biomass.

Keywords

biomass / liquefaction / catalysis / bio-oil / process intensification

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Acknowledgements

The authors were grateful for the financial support by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, No. 2007CB210203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant. No. 20576086), the Special Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20050610013), and the Funds for Innovative Research of Sichuan University. The supervision of Prof. Qingshi Zhu was also acknowledged.

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