526 / 2018-09-18 14:36:11

Selective pyrolysis of biomass to prepare energy and chemical platform compounds

全体主题 > 生物质液体燃料

Biomass is readily-available, environmental-friendly and renewable energy. It ranks the fourth in reverse, preceded only by coal, oil and natural gas. Pyrolysis is one of the main techniques for clean and efficient utilization of biomass. Liquid products generated from pyrolysis of biomass under different conditions all contain many high value-added compounds, which are difficult to be synthetized by traditional methods. However, due to the complex reactions in traditional pyrolysis process, most pyrolytic compounds in liquid products are low in yields, making their separation and purification very difficult. In order to obtain valuable compounds, selective pyrolysis techniques have been developed. According to the different operation ways, selective pyrolysis techniques can be classified into types such as direct pyrolysis, catalytic pyrolysis and media involved catalytic pyrolysis. The obtained products contain bulk chemicals (methanol, furfural etc.), fine chemicals (5-hydroxymethyl furfural, 4-vinylphenol etc.) and prospective chemicals (levoglucosenone etc.). Based on density functional theory calculations and fast pyrolysis experiments, our group has investigated and revealed the formation mechanism of major pyrolytic products and key rate determining steps in holocellulose pyrolysis. In addition, we have also investigated the basic pyrolytic mechanism of lignin and the influence of substituent groups on the pyrolysis mechanism of lignin. At the meantime, we have successfully developed several efficient biomass selective pyrolysis techniques, such as (I) low temperature fast pyrolysis of fructose/cornstalk to prepare 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, (II) low temperature catalytic fast pyrolysis of cellulose and biomass with solid acid catalyst to produce levoglucosenone, (III) low temperature fast pyrolysis of bagasse and other herbaceous biomass to prepare 4-vinylphenol, (IV) low temperature catalytic fast pyrolysis of bagasse with activated carbon catalyst to produce 4-ethylphenol, and so on.