Upgrading of sawdust pyrolysis oil to hydrocarbon fuels using tungstate-zirconia-supported Ru catalysts with less formation of cokes

Using a continuous flow reactor, bio-oil prepared by the pyrolysis of sawdust was upgraded to produce petroleum-like deoxygenated hydrocarbon fuels. Dispersed tiny bio-char particles in the raw bio-oil were removed by extraction using diethyl ether to suppress solid-particle-nucleated coking. Noble metal catalysts, instead of molybdenum-based catalysts, were selected to avoid the continuous addition of sulfur compounds. Among the catalysts, tungstate-zirconia-supported Ru catalysts (Ru/WZr) exhibited high hydrodeoxygenation activity and less formation of cokes, which characteristics are important in the development of feasible upgrading processes. The investigation of catalysts used in this study demonstrates that the larger quantity of Bronsted acid sites compared to Lewis acid sites suppresses the formation of cokes. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.