The 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE2018)

470 / 2018-09-06 16:21:43

Production of bio-oils and propylene from renewable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) over metallic oxides

Plenary track > C. Liquid Biofuel

Similar to oil and starch accumulated in plants, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is a biopolyester (C4H6O2)n formed in many bacterial species as energy storage material. Recently, PHB was also found a potential new biological feedstock for production of high-quality bio-oils, with a one-pot acid-catalyzed reforming process. However, the corrosion properties and deactivation of acid active sites made the utilization of acid catalysts a challenge. In addition, regeneration of the acid catalysts seemed an inextricable obstacle due to their poor thermal stability and loading of residues on these solid catalysts. In this work, amphoteric reducible metal oxides, including CeO2, TiO2, and ZrO2, were found good catalysts for the PHB reforming reactions for production of bio-oils and propylene. At the mild temperature of 240 oC, the of bio-oils and propylene reached 35 wt% and 17 wt%, respectively. The main constituents of the bio-oils were alkenes and ketones. In addition, the amphoteric reducible metal oxides showed excellent reusability, as the there was no deactivation after five times reusing cycles.