Abstract
Pyrolysis of biomass is a promising technology to convert solid biomass into liquid bio-oils. However, bio-oils have high water and oxygen content which subsequently lowers their energy density relative to conventional hydrocarbons. For these reasons, an upgrading process is required. Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a rapidly developing technology for oxygen removal from pyrolysis bio-oils and noble metal catalysts have shown promising activities, especially as compared to the traditional hydrodesulphurization catalysts (e.g. CoMo/Al2O3 and NiMo/Al2O3). However, further understanding and development of the catalysts through improving robustness, increasing the oil yield and reducing the hydrogen consumption are still required. In this work, guaiacol, a phenol derived compound produced by the thermal degradation of lignin, was selected as a model compound to study the HDO process. Guaiacol is selected because it is among the major components of pyrolysis bio-oils, but it is thermally unstable and leads to catalyst deactivation.
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Chemical Engineering
Date of Award
January 2014
Recommended Citation
Gao, Danni, "Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol over Noble Metal Catalysts" (2014). Open Access Dissertations. 1498.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1498
First Advisor
Arvind Varma
Committee Member 1
Arvind Varma
Committee Member 2
Fabio H Ribeiro
Committee Member 3
Doraiswami Ramkrishna
Committee Member 4
Mahdi Abu-Omar