Catalytic liquefaction of wood material

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Energy research
Energy policy

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• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

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Commission des Communautés européennes
énergie
LIQUEFACTION CATALYTIQUE
DE BIOMASSES LIGNOCELLULOSIQUES
Rapport
EUR 10004 FR-EN
Agrandissement a partir d'un original miciolu lu Commission des Communautés européennes
énergie
LIQUEFACTION CATALYTIQUE
DE BIOMASSES LIGNOCELLULOSIQUES
A. BURTON, D. DE ZUTTER, G. PONCELET,
P. GRANGE, B. DELMON
Université Catholique de Louvain
Groupe de Physico-Chimie Minérale et de Catalyse
Place Croix du Sud, 1
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Contrat N° ESE-R-033-B
RAPPORT FINAL
avec
un résumé du rapport final en anglais
Direction générale Science, Recherche et Développement
1986 EUR 10004 FR-EN Publié par:
COMMISSION DES COMMUNAUTÉS EUROPÉENNES
Direction générale
Marché de l'information et innovation
Bâtiment Jean Monnet
LUXEMBOURG
AVERTISSEMENT
Ni la Commission des Communautés européennes, ni aucune autre personne agissant
au nom de la Commission, n'est responsable de l'usage qui pourrait être fait des
informations ci-après.
CECA — CEE — CEEA, Bruxelles-Luxembourg, 1986 III
CATALYTIC LIQUEFACTION OF WOOD MATERIAL
INTRODUTTIVE SUMMARY OF THE FINAL REPORT ν
1. INTRODUCTION
The petroleum crises and their drastic consequences on our
purchasing power have shown our energetic vulnerability towards
petroleum supplier countries. These crises have been responsi­
ble for the development of many R&D programmes based on the
discovery and the exploitation of renewable energy sources.
Little attention has been paid to the availability of raw ma­
terial for meeting the future needs of the chemical industry;
in this context it appears that emphasis must be placed on
R&D programme valorizing biomass as a source of chemicals.
Figure 1
LIINKELLUiKIC
8IIMASS
FIHl NfflMlS
for
HYDHOOEALKYLAriON
POLYMERIZATION
FRACTIONATION VI
The present research programme is concerned with the catalytic
liquefaction of wood by mild hydrogenolysis in an organic sol­
vent with hydrotreat ing catalysts.
Two aims were defined: the depolymerization of the ligneous
material into monophenols and the hydrocracking of the non-
ligneous organic content into liquid fuels.
A recent investigation of the literature on biomass valoriza­
tion has indicated two fundamental research objectives: the
production of liquid fuels and the production of molecules with
a high commercial value. At the moment, the production of li­
quid fuels from sel f-renewinq raw material has been more stu­
died and developed, far more than the exploitation of biomas­
ses as a source of chemicals.
The catalytic liquefaction appears as a key process amongst the
future options of 1ignocel1ulosic biomass exploitation.(P4)
One method is the direct catalytic hydroliquefaction of crude
biomasses if the hydrolysis step is to be avoided, this mainly
yields liquid fuels. The second option resides in the depoly­
merization by mild hydrogenolysis of residual lignin from the
hydrolysis step and the pulp industry, into monophenols.
This liquefaction process becomes advantageous compared with
other thermoconversions because it avoids the complete
degradation of the ligneous structure and therefore, allows us
to benefit from photosynthesis.
2. REACTION PROCEDURE
Wood: popi ar,spruce and batch reactor CRUDE GAS
LIGHT FR*
beech,bark ,eel lulose +.,·„«. Wmfn *"
TOTAL PHENOLIC FR
time :JUmin
LIQUEFACTION NEUTRAL FR.
c , . . , -,. temp. :400°C
ASPHALTENES Solvent:tetralin :40-60bar
H2 „water
Catalyst:CoMo,NiMo,NiW
'Characterization of the light fraction:-heating capacity:
8611 cal/g
-sulfur content:600·
800ppm. VII
2.1 Aim of_the_anal_yt^cal^ procedure
In addition to testing the quality of liquefaction, the ana­
lysis should give information concerning the catalytic selecti­
vity for phenolic compounds, a classification of products accor­
ding to the boiling point and the chemical functions, it should
also give details of the nature of reaction mechanisms involved
in catalytic liquefaction.
Moreover, the procedure should be designed in such a way, as to
collect results as rapidly as possible, provided that the pro­
cedure could also be compared to the classic methods carried
out in the petroleum industry.
The knowledge of the elemental balance was our final requirement
These aims are achieved by distillation of the crude and alka­
line extraction of several cuts.(P2» P3)
Concerning the fractionation asphaltenes-mal tenes, it is car­
ried out, as in the petroleum industry, i.e. by a continuous
benzene extraction and asphaltenes precipitation by pentane.
Identification of the major components in the different frac­
tions was performed by the use of instrumental analysis: NMR,
IR, GC/MS etc...(P3)
It seems that this procedure is more comprehensive than those
commonly applied in similar studies and leads to a better de­
termination of the quality of the products obtained.
2.2 Re^uUs
Among systematic investigations of different parameters,
it appears that temperature and the quality of the contact be­
tween wood-solvent and catalyst are the most important in order
to achieve total liquefaction. VIII
Figure 2
Influence of temperature on the evolution of the light, neutral,
aqueous, phenolic and heavy fractions.
1%
21
n
ίο
44· 47t m ITI 4M
It appears clearly that the major phenols produced and their
relative amounts are mainly dependant of the liquefied plant
species, as can be seen in figure 3.
The fact that the cellulose liquefaction produces a large quan­
tity of condensed aromatic structures(asphaltenes), indicates
thant significant dehydrogenation has occured because of the
saturated character of cellulose.