Continuous-flow production of petroleum-replacing fuels from highly viscous Kraft lignin pyrolysis oil using its hydrocracked oil as a solvent

The development of solvent-free lignin pyrolysis processes is highly desirable, because these processes would allow the depolymerized product to be used directly as a renewable energy source and chemical feedstock, without removal of solvnets. However, this product is typically highly viscous and cannot be used in continuous-flow reaction systems. In this study, lignin pyrolysis oil was prepared from Kraft lignin using bench-scale fixed-bed batch pyrolysis and then hydrocracked to produce less-viscous liquid products. Oligomers were degraded into smaller molecules via reactions involving hydrogen (hydrocracking) using CoMo/H beta and CoMo/Al2O3 as catalysts. A low viscosity of 21 cP, a liquid yield of 76.6%, and a low coke yield of 1.6% were successfully attained using a reaction temperature of 400 degrees C, a reaction time of 60 min, and the CoMo/H beta catalyst. Thus, these conditions were selected to achieve the highest liquid yield with sufficient fluidity, although the lowest viscosity of 3.2 cP was achieved after 240 min. When 30 wt% of the resulting hydrocracked oil was used, it dissolved sticky raw lignin pyrolysis oil, significantly reducing its viscosity from 751 cP to 111 cP, which is sufficient to ensure flow in a typical petroleum pipeline. Using the hydrocracked/raw lignin pyrolysis oil mixture, the proposed continuous-flow hydrodeoxygenation successfully produced petroleum-replacing deoxygenated fuels.