Upgrading Bio-oil over Different Solid Catalysts

Bio-oil, a liquid product from biomass via fast pyrolysis, by the virtue of its
environmentally friendly potential, is regarded as a promising energy source. In spite
of that, it has certain limitations that bring on many problems in its handling and
utilization. Thus, bio-oils require upgrading to improve their characteristics before
they can be used as replacement for fuels. The objective of this project is to upgrade
bio-oil over different solid catalysts.
Based on the literature review, it is concluded that esterification is the most
preferable upgrading technique due to the properties of bio-oil resulted from the
process and its low production cost. To carry out the esterification either a
homogenous or heterogeneous catalyst can be used. For this project, heterogeneous
catalyst is used whereas the scope is within the usage of solid acid and solid base
catalysts, specifically 40SiO2/TiO2-SO42" and 30K2CO3/Al2O3-NaOH.
The research methodology of this project consists of artificial bio-oil preparation,
catalysts preparation, esterification experiment and characterization of bio-oil. The
results and discussion analysis along with case study to compare with previous
similar project are conducted. At the end, both solid acid and solid base catalysts
successfully converted the bio-oil into esters through esterfication experiment. For
generating solid acid catalyst, new approach is used: by using silica gel and highly
dispersed Si02 as the materials. It is also concluded that this project gives a fast
reaction rate in achieving the equilibrium conversions and that the characteristics of
upgraded bio-oil in this project are improved to standard biodiesel properties.