PYROLYSIS OILS FROM BIOMASS

E. J. Soltes and T. A. Milne, eds.. Pyrolysis Oils from Biomass Producing Analy ng and Upgrading, ACS Symposium Series 376, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1988. 

The potentially detrimental role of guaiacols on the stability of the catalytic system during hydrotreating of pyrolysis oils from biomass was evidenced using model compound solutions. 

Elliot, DC, LJ Sealock, and RS Butner (1988) Product Analysis from Direct Liquefaction of Several High-Moisture Biomass Feedstocks in Pyrolysis Oils from Biomass Producing, Analyzing, and Upgrading, Eds Soltes, EJ, and Milne, T.A., ACSSymp. Seri376, p 55-65,. 179-187. 

Amidst the panic of petroleum shortages and rising prices of 1979, some individuals expected to produce oils from biomass, also known as bio-crude, proto-oil, bunker bio-oil... This expectation was fairly short-lived however. Although touted as something, someday destined to replace or reduce oil imports, pyrolysis oil from biomass had very little in common with petroleum. Its qualifications as "a crude" were very rudimentary. It looked black, smelled bad, and usually flowed if there was enough water in it but that is where the resemblance ended. 

Renaud, M. Grandmaison, J.L. Roy, C. Kaliaguine, S. Production, Analysis and Upgrading of Pyrolysis Oils from Biomass. ACS Division of Fuel Chemistry Preprints, Denver, Co. April 5-10, 1987 32, (2), p. 276-286. 

A vortex tube has certain advantages as a chemical reactor, especially if the reactions are endothermic, the reaction pathways are temperature dependent, and the products are temperature sensitive. With low temperature differences, the vortex reactor can transmit enormous heat fluxes to a process stream containing entrained solids. This reactor is ideally suited for the production of pyrolysis oils from biomass at low pressures and residence times to produce about 10 wt % char, 13% water, 7% gas, and 70% oxygenated primary oil vapors based on mass balances. This product distribution was verified by carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen elemental balances. The oil production appears to form by fragmenting all of the major constituents of the biomass. 

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