EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CELLULOSE FAST PYROLYSIS OVER SOLID CATALYSTS

MARÍA LUZ NIEVA; MARÍA ALICIA, VOLPE; E. LAURA MOYANO

Foz do Iguaçu

Congreso; 12a Conferencia Latinoamericana de Físico-Química Orgánica 12th Latin American Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry; 2013

Biomass pyrolysis is a viable route for producing gases and liquids that can replace somepetroleum-derived products. Also, the possibility of obtaining useful chemicals from biomass hasalso been demonstrated. It is commonly agreed that cellulose can be a model species for biomassbecause it is the most frequent and sometimes the most abundant biomass component. Several fastpyrolysis techniques have been suggested where variations in the contact time and temperaturelead to completely different products1. The acid treatment of the starting cellulose as well as theincorporation of catalysts has an important influence on the course of the thermal degradation. Themain purpose of this work was the development of a catalytic fast pyrolysis technique for supplyingnew data concerning to the cellulose pyrolysis mechanism at high temperatures and very lowresidence times. Thus, levoglucosan ( LG), and 5-hydroxy-cyclopenten-2-one (5-HC) were obtainedas main products in the fast catalytic pyrolysis of crystalline cellulose using CeO2, Nb2O5, MCM-48,and AlFeMCM-41 as catalysts. The product distribution was affected by the temperature, startingcellulose and catalyst´s features. Thus, LG was the prevalent anhydrosugar in the bio-oil formed at350 ºC using cellulose without phosphoric acid pre-treatment. By contrast, the acid-pretreatedcellulose pyrolysis generated the ketone 5-HC as main product reducing the yield of LG. The highspecific surface area of the mesoporous catalysts improved the yield of the main products in theliquid fractions, in contrast to the acidic and redox properties of the other catalysts employed. On theother hand, it was demonstrated that LG constitutes an intermediate for the formation of 5-HC andother products in the cellulose pyrolysis.