Bio-Oil Upgrading by Catalytic Cracking Over Different Solid Catalysts

Authors

  • Ala'a H. Al-Muhtaseb Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat
  • Farrukh Jamil Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat
  • Mahad Baawain Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University
  • Mohab Al-Hinai Department of Biology, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University
  • Joseph Zeaiter Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, American University of Beirut
  • Mohammad N. Ahmad Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, American University of Beirut

Keywords:

Bio-oil, Upgrading, HZSM-5, Characterization, Catalytic cracking, Deoxygenation

Abstract

Fossil fuel crises along with global environmental issues, due to combustion of fossil fuel, lead to focus on biomass derived fuels. Bio-oil nowadays is seriously considered to be one of the favorable, renewable and alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuel and has become a significant energy carrier for transportation, industrial and commercial applications. In this study, bio-oil was upgraded by catalytic cracking in a fixed bed reactor in the presence of three different catalysts HY, H-mordenite and HZSM-5.All of the experimental runs were carried out at 500 °C, 0.3MPa and 15:1 oil to catalyst ratio. Catalysts characterization revealed that HZSM-5 with uniform pore and TPD analysis shows the presence of large number of acidic sites as compared to HY and H-mordenite. HZSM-5 proved its effectiveness in terms of deoxygenation and converting oxygenating compounds to hydrocarbons. The amount of hydrocarbons formed was 16.27 wt % OLP for HZSM-5, 15.16 wt% for HY and 14.954 wt % for H-mordenite. HZSM-5 possessed a strong acidity, uniform pore size and high activities which tended to permit the transformation of the oxygenated compounds present in the bio-oil to hydrocarbons. The upgraded bio-oil obtained posses improved physiochemical properties such pH which was increased from 2.21 to 3.56 while density was decreased upto 0.82 kg/m3. The calorific value also increased upto 31.65 kJ/kg. The improved bio-oil by HZSM-5 catalyst can be considered as a potential for to be used as direct fuel.

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Published

2016-03-29

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

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