Catalytic upgrading and enhancing the combustion characteristic of pyrolysis oil

ABSTRACT

Bagasse’s pyrolysis oil has low calorific value, high water content, and acidity. The main components of the pyrolysis oil are acids/esters, alcohols, aldehydes/ketones, furan compounds, phenol compounds, and guaiacols, and there is not an aromatic hydrocarbon in composition. Pyrolysis oil evaporates only 66.73 wt% at a temperature of 300°C and carbonaceous residue formed is 13.41 wt%. The carbonaceous residue will limit the utilization of pyrolysis oil because it generates soot while burning and made secondary emission. Upgrading the pyrolysis oil to enhance the vaporization, prevent the formation of carbon residue, and improve combustion behaviors has been investigated in this paper. Using catalyst HZSM5, Zn/HZSM-5, and Fe/HZSM-5 for upgrading pyrolysis oil, the quality of upgrading oil is enhanced with higher heating value, lower acidity, and viscosity. The modification of chemical composition of pyrolysis oil has generated better components for evaporation. At 300 °C, 91.97 wt%, 92.93 wt%, and 94.71 wt% of upgrading oil are evaporated for HZSM-5, Zn/HZSM-5, and Fe/HZSM-5, respectively. Carbonaceous residue decreases significantly to only 4.74 wt% with HZSM-5 catalyst, 4.39 wt% with Zn/HZSM-5, and 3.39 wt% with Fe/HZSM-5. Evaluation of the upgrading oil combustion by thermal analysis method, the total combustion characteristics index increases and it is more flammable than fuel oil. The results prove that upgrading oil might be used as a fuel oil in industrial application.

KEYWORDS:

• Pyrolysis oil
• combustion
• evaporation
• ex situ catalysis
• HZSM-5 catalyst

Acknowledgments

The financial support from (Project. B2020-BKA-09) Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam for conducting this research is highly appreciated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bộ Giáo dục và Ðào tạo [B2020-BKA-09].