Hydrocarbon and hydrogen-rich syngas production by biomass catalytic pyrolysis and bio-oil upgrading over biochar catalysts

The focus of this study is to investigate the influences of biochar as a catalyst in biomass pyrolysis and bio-oil upgrading. The biochar catalyst enhanced the syngas and improved the bio-oil quality in biomass pyrolysis. The high concentrations of phenols (46 area%) and hydrocarbons (16 area%) were obtained from torrefied biomass catalytic pyrolysis over biochar catalysts. High-quality syngas enriched in H-2, CO, and CH4 was observed. The amounts of H-2 and CO in syngas were up to 20.43 vol% and 43.03 vol% in raw biomass catalytic pyrolysis, and 27.02 vol% and 38.34 vol% in torrefied biomass catalytic pyrolysis. Thermal gravimetric (TG) analysis showed that the raw and recycled biochar catalysts had good thermal stability. Upgraded bio-oil was dominated by phenols (37.23 area%) and hydrocarbons (42.56 area%) at high biochar catalyst loadings. The biochar catalyst might be used as a cost-competitive catalyst in biomass conversion and bio-oil upgrading.