Aqueous Phase Synthesis of Hydrocarbons from Reactions of Guaiacol and Low Molecular Weight Oxygenates

Enhancement of biogas production from wastewater sludge via anaerobic digestion assisted with biochar amendment

Studies have shown that biochar enhances methane formation due to the presence of redox active moieties and its conductive properties. This study investigated the influence of biochar, which was produced from Douglas fir pyrolysis, on biogas production and microbial community during anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastewater sludge. The results showed that biochar significantly enhances methane (CH₄) production rate and increases its final yield during AD. The cumulative highest CH₄ production obtaining in cultures with DF500 (biochar from Douglas fir at 500 °C) were about 11% and 98% more than the culture without biochar at 37 °C and 25 °C AD temperature, respectively. At 55 °C, the maximum CH₄ yield reached 172.3 ml/g COD with DF730, which was about 48.3% more than control culture. The microbial community analysis results showed that biochar could up-regulate the role of micro-ecology especially the methanogens and improve the AD process.

Hydrotreating of Guaiacol and Acetic Acid Blends over Ni2P/ZSM-5 Catalysts: Elucidating Molecular Interactions during Bio-Oil Upgrading

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is an effective technology for upgrading pyrolysis bio-oils. Although, in the past years, this process has been extensively studied, the relevance of the cross-reactivity between the numerous chemical components of bio-oil has been scarcely explored. However, molecular coupling can be beneficial for improving the bio-oil characteristics. With the aim of gaining a better understanding of these interactions, this work investigates the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of mixtures of two typical components of pyrolysis bio-oils: guaiacol and acetic acid. The catalytic tests were carried out employing a bifunctional catalyst based on nickel phosphide (Ni₂P) deposited over a commercial nanocrystalline ZSM-5 zeolite. The influence of both hydrogen availability and temperature on the activity and product distribution, was evaluated by carrying out reactions under different H₂ pressures (40-10 bar) and temperatures (between 260 and 300 °C). Using blends of both substrates, a partial inhibition of guaiacol HDO occurred because of the competence of acetic acid for the catalytic active sites. Nevertheless, positive interactions were also observed, mainly esterification and acylation reactions, which could enhance the bio-oil stability by reducing acidity, lowering the oxygen content, and increasing the chain length of the components. In this respect, formation of acetophenones, which can be further hydrogenated to yield ethyl phenols, is of particular interest for biorefinery applications. Increasing the temperature results in an increment of conversion but a decrease in the yield of fully deoxygenated molecules due to the production of higher proportion of catechol and related products. Additional experiments performed in the absence of hydrogen revealed that esterification reactions are homogeneously self-catalyzed by acetic acid, while acylation processes are mainly catalyzed by the acidic sites of the zeolitic support.

ZnO/Ionic Liquid Catalyzed Biodiesel Production from Renewable and Waste Lipids as Feedstocks

A new protocol for biodiesel production is proposed, based on a binary ZnO/TBAI (TBAI = tetrabutylammonium iodide) catalytic system. Zinc oxide acts as a heterogeneous, bifunctional Lewis acid/base catalyst, while TBAI plays the role of phase transfer agent. Being composed by the bulk form powders, the whole catalyst system proved to be easy to use, without requiring nano-structuration or tedious and costly preparation or pre-activation procedures. In addition, due to the amphoteric properties of ZnO, the catalyst can simultaneously promote transesterification and esterification processes, thus becoming applicable to common vegetable oils (e.g., soybean, jatropha, linseed, etc.) and animal fats (lard and fish oil), but also to waste lipids such as cooking oils (WCOs), highly acidic lipids from oil industry processing, and lipid fractions of municipal sewage sludge. Reusability of the catalyst system together with kinetic (Ea) and thermodynamic parameters of activation (ΔG‡ and ΔH‡) are also studied for transesterification reaction.

Mechanochemical Preparation of Novel Polysaccharide-Supported Nb2O5 Catalysts

Polysaccharides extracted from natural sources can be used as starting material for the preparation of nanoparticle supported composites. A novel family of bio-nanocomposites was mechanochemically synthesized by using niobium oxide and enzymatically produced polysaccharides. The structural, textural and surface properties of nanomaterials, were determined by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption (N₂ porosimetry), pulse chromatography, infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Selective oxidation of isoeugenol to vanillin was carried out to demonstrate the catalytic activity of the Nb-polysaccharides nanocomposites. Interestingly, most of our material showed high conversion of isoeugenol (60–70%) with selectivity to vanillin over 40%. The optimum conversion and selectivity were achieved with a reaction time between 8 and 24 h.

Catalytic Co-Pyrolysis of Kraft Lignin with Refuse-Derived Fuels Using Ni-Loaded ZSM-5 Type Catalysts

The catalytic co-pyrolysis (CCP) of Kraft lignin (KL) with refuse-derived fuels (RDF) over HZSM-5, Ni/HZSM-5, and NiDHZSM-5 (Ni/desilicated HZSM-5) was carried out using pyrolyzer-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to determine the effects of the nickel loading, desilication of HZSM-5, and co-pyrolysis of KL with RDF. The catalysts were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, X-ray diffraction, and NH3-temperature programed desorption. The nickel-impregnated catalyst improved the catalytic upgrading efficiency and increased the aromatic hydrocarbon production. Compared to KL, the catalytic pyrolysis of RDF produced larger amounts of aromatic hydrocarbons due to the higher H/Ceff ratio. The CCP of KL with RDF enhanced the production of aromatic hydrocarbons by the synergistic effect of hydrogen rich feedstock co-feeding. In particular, Ni/DHZSM-5 showed higher aromatic hydrocarbon formation owing to its higher acidity and mesoporosity.

Catalytic Hydrogenation, Hydrodeoxygenation, and Hydrocracking Processes of a Lignin Monomer Model Compound Eugenol over Magnetic Ru/C–Fe2O3 and Mechanistic Reaction Microkinetics

Conversion of waste lignocellulosic (LC) biomass, a widely-available low-cost feedstock, into value-added biobased chemicals (and biofuels) has been gaining much attention recently. Therefore, the present lignin valorisation study was aimed at developing magnetically-separable highly-active catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), also proposing surface chemical kinetics. Five carbonaceous substrate-deposited Ru were synthesised and tested for the HDO of monomer moiety eugenol. Their annealing temperatures differed, specifically between 300 and 750 °C, while one was not subjected to calcination. Experiments revealed the substantial influence of annealing temperature on the product distribution. Namely, fresh nonannealed nanocomposites were not active for hydrogenolysis. By further pretreatment increase, hydrogenation and, exclusively, the deoxygenation of saturated cyclic species, were enhanced, these being more promoted considering rates and yields than commercial carbon-supported ruthenium. Over 80 mol% of 4-propyl-cylohexanol and propyl-cyclohexane could be formed over the samples, treated at 500 and 600 °C, for 100 and 125 min, respectively, under 275 °C and 5 MPa of reactor hydrogen pressure. Interestingly, a notable 4-propyl-phenol amount was produced upon 750 °C pretreating. The intrinsic microkinetic model, developed previously, was applied to determine relevant turnover parameters. Calculated modelling results indicated a 47- and 10-fold greater demethoxylation and dehydroxylation mechanism ability upon the reheatingpreheating at 600 °C in comparison to industrial (heterogeneous) Ru/C.