Stabilizing and upgrading of bio-oils to biofuels

A team of researchers at the Technical University of Technical University of Munich has developed a new catalytic process for the aqueous-phase hydrogenation of components of bio-oil directly into alkanes and methanol. The study presents the properties as an aqueous, acidic, highly oxidized mixture with high oxygenation and at the same time have found that while it is not used as a direct advanced fuel. The team has also developed an innovative catalytic pathway with a bifunctional combination of a stable carbon-supported palladium catalyst with phosphoric acid as the proton source for the reaction. They have also developed a a one step process whose partial reactions such as hydrogenation, hydrolysis, and dehydration occurs in the same reactor with no intermediate work-up. The development provides a feasible approach for the direct use of crude aqueous bio-oil mixture facilitating energy efficient and atom economic process.