Enhancing production of hydrocarbon-rich bio-oil from biomass via catalytic fast pyrolysis coupled with advanced oxidation process pretreatment

This study aims to propose a method for upgrading biomass pyrolysis products based on the combination of sodium persulfate pretreatment and fast catalytic pyrolysis. Combined with the analysis of components and thermogravimetric analysis, the result showed that after pretreatment the biomass structure was gradually depolymerized, the contents of lignin, the reaction of activation energy and the crystallinity of cellulose decreased. Due to the destructive effect of persulfate radicals, in fast pyrolysis, the relative contents of acids and oxygen-containing substances decreased, and the relative content of phenols can significantly increase to 19.20%. The yield of aromatic hydrocarbons and total hydrocarbons had a high value under the catalytic pyrolysis in the best performance which amount of yield reached 28.66% and 33.72%, respectively. Sodium persulfate pretreatment was beneficial in the production of hydrocarbon-rich bio-oils and high-value chemicals since the radicals can effectively depolymerize lignin which promoted the process of pyrolysis.