Toward Fast Pyrolysis-Based Biorefinery: Selective Production of Platform Chemicals from Biomass by Organosolv Fractionation Coupled with Fast Pyrolysis

Toward Fast Pyrolysis-Based Biorefinery: Selective Production of Platform Chemicals from Biomass by Organosolv Fractionation Coupled with Fast Pyrolysis

Pyrolysis

Petroleum refining

Biofuels

Biomass

Cellulose

Lignin

Chemicals

Feedstocks

Bioconversion

The heterogeneous structure of biomass causes the complex compositions of bio-oil, thereby posing huge challenges for the extraction of value-added chemicals from bio-oil and the catalytic upgrading of bio-oil in existing petroleum-refining infrastructures. In order to overcome these challenges, a new advanced biorefinery based on organosolv fractionation coupled with fast pyrolysis is first proposed. The experimental results showed that biomass can be effectively divided into cellulose-rich fractions, organosolv lignins, and xylose by organosolv fractionation, thus improving the relative yields of platform chemicals (levoglucosan (LG) and phenols) in subsequent fast pyrolysis. The relative LG yields from eucalyptus, pine, and bagasse increased from 4.8, 3.5, and 2.1 wt% to 42.1, 22.7, and 59.8 wt%, respectively. These findings provide a simple and efficient integrated process to selective production of platform chemicals, which is different from the existing processes, e.g. catalytic fast pyrolysis and postpyrolysis separation. In addition, the fast pyrolysis of acid-passivated cellulose-rich fractions with varying cellulose contents revealed that the LG yields were linearly related to the cellulose contents of feedstocks, and the gap between actual and theoretical yields of LG decreased with increasing cellulose contents of feedstocks, suggesting that the interactions between cellulose and other components (lignin and hemicellulose) were the main controlling factor of LG yields from pyrolysis of acid-passivated cellulose-rich fractions. 2017 American Chemical Society.

6507-6516

8

5

ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering

2017

Zheng, Anqing

Chen, Tianju

Sun, Jiangwei

Jiang, Liqun

Wu, Jinhu

Zhao, Zengli

Huang, Zhen

Zhao, Kun

Wei, Guoqiang

He, Fang

Li, Haibin

journalArticle

21680485

10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b00622