Upgrading of bio-oil in supercritical ethanol: Catalysts screening, solvent recovery and catalyst stability study

Supercritical upgrading of bio-oil is an effective method to upgrade bio-oil. In this paper, upgrading of bio-oil was carried out in supercritical ethanol with the aim of catalyst selection, reducing solvent consumption and catalyst stability study. Compared with Ru/HZSM-5, C-supported catalysts (Pt/C, Pd/C, and Ru/C) gave better catalytic performance. Over the C-supported catalysts, the heating value increased from 21.45 MJ/kg to about 30 MJ/kg and the pH value increased from 3.13 to about 5.5. The relative content of desired products reached as high as 80% over Ru/C. The ratio of ethanol to bio-oil was further reduced to about 1:1 by solvent recovery and reutilization. The relative content of desired products particularly that of esters increased with the recovered solvent. Catalytic stability study of Ru/C showed that the relative content of desired products decreased gradually with the number of catalyst recycle times while the consumption of hydrogen decreased mainly in the first recycle. Coke deposition and sintering of metal particles were the main reasons for the deactivation of Ru/C. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.