Mesoporous materials funtionalized with noble metals for bio-oil treatment.

Abstract

Bio-oil obtained by pyrolysis of biomass can be consider as a renewable petroleum alternative. Liquid fuel obtained by this process presents high oxygen content, becoming into a corrosive and unstable fuel. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a catalytic treatment that improves the bio-oil characteristics. There are more than 400 organic compounds that can be found in bio-oil. For that reason we selected guayacol (2-methoxyphenol ó 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl) as model compound to test the catalytic activity of the developed catalysts. The catalysts tested for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guayacol to produce deoxygenated products such as benzene, toluene, ciclohexene and ciclohexane were platinum modified mesoporous SBA-15 and Ga-SBA-15. The synthetized catalysts were obtained by sol-gel method. Active platinum sites were incorporated by wet impregnation. The system reaction used for HDO is a 600 mL stirred autoclave (Parr Pressure Reactor 4536). Reaction conditions were carried out at 230°C and 12 atm of H2 under 500 rpm. Reactor feed consisted in 50 mL of a 1% w/v solution of guayacol in dodecane. Then, 200 mg of the catalyst was transferred to the reactor. Samples were taken every hour. Products were analysed with HP Series II GC and HP-5 capillary column and identified by GC/MS.