AN OVERVIEW OF PYROLYSIS CAPABILITIES OF MESOPOROUS CATALYSTS

Abstract

The demand for renewable energy is growing due to depletion of fossil fuels and environmental and political regulations. According to this, biomass is emerging as a natural choice due to not only being a clean energy carrier but also representing the final objective of a decarbonized society. Between the thermochemical conversion processes, pyrolysis is favoured for bio-oil production. In recent years, catalytic systems have been proposed as an encouraging way by realizing the upgrading of the biomass pyrolysis bio-oil using various catalysts. According to the literature, HZSM-5 is very well known to be the most effective catalyst for cracking or reforming bio-oil. This excellent performance of HZSM-5 has been related to the shape-selectivity, ion exchange capacity, and unique acid characteristics. On the other hand, HZSM-5 with micropores is a disadvantage that is restricted by the low mass transfer rates, mainly for large molecules. In this review, mesoporous materials including Al-SBA-15, Al-MCM-41, mesoporous aluminosilicate materials (MSU-SBEA), mordenite framework inverted (MFI) catalysts and hierarchical mesoporous Y (meso Y) as potential catalysts employed in catalytic pyrolysis in recent articles have been reviewed. The catalytic performance was assessed by analysing the composition of the products. Pyrolysis product distributions of pyrolysis and properties of bio-oil have dealt. Although the results from the experiments cannot be directly compared with each other due to the using different raw materials and applying different experimental conditions, recommendations on bio-oil quantity and quality are worth to discuss.