REVIEW ARTICLE

A review on ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass

  • Shaolong WAN , 1 ,
  • Yong WANG 2
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  • 1. Center for Biomass Refining, School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
  • 2. Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA

Received date: 24 Mar 2014

Accepted date: 30 Mar 2014

Published date: 11 Oct 2014

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) is deemed as the most promising way to convert biomass to transportation fuels or value added chemicals. Most works in literature so far have focused on the in situ CFP where the catalysts are packed or co-fed with the feedstock in the pyrolysis reactor. However, the ex situ CFP with catalysts separated from the pyrolyzer has attracted more and more attentions due to its unique advantages of individually optimizing the pyrolysis conditions and catalyst performances. This review compares the differences between the in situ and ex situ CFP operation, and summarizes the development and progress of ex situ CFP applications, including the rationale and performances of different catalysts, and the choices of suitable ex situ reactor systems. Due to the complex composition of bio-oil, no single approach was believed to be able to solve the problems completely among all those existing technologies. With the increased understanding of catalyst performances and reaction process, the recent trend toward an integration of biomass or bio-oil fractionation with subsequent thermo/bio-chemical conversion routes is also discussed.

Cite this article

Shaolong WAN , Yong WANG . A review on ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2014 , 8(3) : 280 -294 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-014-1436-8

Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate the support from the Center for Biomass Refining of University of Oklahoma.
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