Aqueous-Phase Processing of Bio-oil Model Compounds Over Pt–Re Supported on Carbon

The aqueous-phase processing (APP) of biomass-derived bio-oil model compounds such as ethanol, acetaldehyde, formic acid and acetic acid over Pt–Re/C was examined. For the APP of ethanol at 250 °C, the product distribution was determined and quantified. H2, CO2, CH4, C2H6, acetaldehyde, ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, acetic acid were found to be primary products and C3H8, methanol, butanol and acetal were found to be minor products. By also exploring the product distributions of acetaldehyde, acetic acid and formic acid under APP conditions with the Pt–Re/C, the reaction network associated with the APP conversion of ethanol was determined. Using this reaction network, flux analysis was performed on the ethanol reaction system to determine the reaction pathway and relative rates (v1–v8) for each step. From this analysis, it was found that the dehydrogenation of the ethanol was the most active reaction in the reaction system.