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Catalysts
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Catalytic Pyrolysis
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Catalytic Pyrolysis

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Catalytic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 31965

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gartzen Lopez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Campus Bizkaia, Bilbao, Spain
Interests: pyrolysis; gasification; spouted bed; biomass; waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Greater environmental awareness is driving society towards the development of sustainable models and the advancement of green chemistry. Thus, recent decades have seen a growing interest in biomass and waste valorisation processes. Among these routes, thermochemical ones are those with best perspectives for full-scale deployment. Indeed, pyrolysis is an efficient and eco-friendly process for the production of fuels, chemicals and hydrogen from different types of biomasses and wastes (e.g., plastics and waste tyres). However, the commercial success of pyrolysis is restricted by the products’ poor quality and the process’s limited selectivity. Within this scenario, catalytic pyrolysis is a feasible alternative to overcome the limitations of thermal pyrolysis. The incorporation of acid catalysts into pyrolysis processes has proven to be a key factor for the production of fuels and chemicals, such as light olefins and aromatics. Furthermore, the use of reforming catalysts allows developing alternative routes for hydrogen production. In spite of the interest in catalytic pyrolysis, there are challenges that must be addressed prior to its large-scale implementation, such as improving catalyst design, studies with real wastes, in-depth deactivation and regeneration studies, and the optimization of product distribution to enhance the production of high value-added products.

Dr. Gartzen Lopez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pyrolysis
  • catalyst
  • biomass
  • waste plastics
  • waste tyres
  • bio-oil
  • light olefins
  • zeolites
  • hydrogen
  • coke

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 185 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial Catalysts: Special Issue on Catalytic Pyrolysis
by Gartzen Lopez
Catalysts 2020, 10(5), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal10050487 - 30 Apr 2020
Viewed by 1314
Abstract
The increase of environmental concern is currently promoting the development of sustainable and green chemistry [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

11 pages, 2898 KiB  
Article
Maximizing Anhydrosugar Production from Fast Pyrolysis of Eucalyptus Using Sulfuric Acid as an Ash Catalyst Inhibitor
by Dongyan Zhang, Yuyang Fan, Anqing Zheng, Zengli Zhao, Fengyun Wang and Haibin Li
Catalysts 2018, 8(12), 609; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8120609 - 03 Dec 2018
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2793
Abstract
Anhydrosugars, such as levoglucosan (LG), are high value-added chemicals which are mainly derived from fast pyrolysis of pure cellulose. However, fast pyrolysis of raw lignocellulosic biomass usually produces a very low amount of levoglucosan, since alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEM) present in [...] Read more.
Anhydrosugars, such as levoglucosan (LG), are high value-added chemicals which are mainly derived from fast pyrolysis of pure cellulose. However, fast pyrolysis of raw lignocellulosic biomass usually produces a very low amount of levoglucosan, since alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEM) present in the ash can serve as the catalysts to inhibit the formation of levoglucosan through accelerating the pyranose ring-opening reactions. In this study, eucalyptus was impregnated with H2SO4 solutions with varying concentrations (0.25–1.25%). The characteristics of ash derived from raw and H2SO4-impregnated eucalyptus were characterized by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The pyrolysis behaviors of raw and H2SO4-impregnated eucalyptus were performed on the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). TG analysis demonstrated that the H2SO4-impregnated eucalyptus produced less char than raw eucalyptus. Py-GC/MS analysis showed that even small amounts of H2SO4 can obviously improve the production of anhydrosugars and phenols and suppressed the formation of carboxylic acids, aldehydes, and ketones from fast pyrolysis of eucalyptus. The rank order of levoglucosan yield from raw and impregnated eucalyptus was raw < 1.25% H2SO4 < 1% H2SO4 < 0.75% H2SO4 < 0.25% H2SO4 < 0.5% H2SO4. The maximum yield of levoglucosan (21.3%) was obtained by fast pyrolysis of eucalyptus impregnated with 0.5% H2SO4, which was close to its theoretical yield based on the cellulose content. The results could be ascribed to that H2SO4 can react with AAEM (e.g., Na, K, Ca, and Mg) and lignin to form lignosulfonate, thus acting as an inhibitor to suppress the catalytic effects of AAEM during fast pyrolysis of eucalyptus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)
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11 pages, 1940 KiB  
Article
Sub-Pilot-Scale Autocatalytic Pyrolysis of Wastewater Biosolids for Enhanced Energy Recovery
by Zhongzhe Liu, Simcha Singer, Daniel Zitomer and Patrick McNamara
Catalysts 2018, 8(11), 524; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8110524 - 07 Nov 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4339
Abstract
Improving onsite energy generation and recovering value-added products are common goals for sustainable used water reclamation. A new process called autocatalytic pyrolysis was developed at bench scale in our previous work by using biochar produced from the biosolids pyrolysis process itself as the [...] Read more.
Improving onsite energy generation and recovering value-added products are common goals for sustainable used water reclamation. A new process called autocatalytic pyrolysis was developed at bench scale in our previous work by using biochar produced from the biosolids pyrolysis process itself as the catalyst to enhance energy recovery from wastewater biosolids. The large-scale investigation of this process was used to increase the technical readiness level. A sub-pilot-scale catalytic pyrolytic system was constructed for this scaled-up study. The effects of configuration changes in both pyrolytic and catalytic reactors were investigated as well as the effect of vapor-catalyst contact types (i.e., downstream, in-situ) on product yield and quality. The sub-pilot-scale test with downstream catalysis resulted in higher py-gas yields and lower bio-oil yields when compared to results from a previous batch, bench-scale process. In particular, the py-gas yields increased 2.5-fold and the energy contained in the py-gas approximately quadrupled compared to the control test without autocatalysis. Biochar addition to the feed biosolids before pyrolysis (in-situ catalysis) resulted in increased py-gas production, but the increase was limited. It was expected that using a higher input pyrolyzer with a better mixing condition would further improve the py-gas yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)
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18 pages, 1513 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Charcoal Production Process from Woody Biomass Waste: Effect of Ni-Containing Catalysts on Pyrolysis Vapors
by Jon Solar, Blanca Maria Caballero, Isabel De Marco, Alexander López-Urionabarrenechea and Naia Gastelu
Catalysts 2018, 8(5), 191; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8050191 - 04 May 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5116
Abstract
Woody biomass waste (Pinus radiata) coming from forestry activities has been pyrolyzed with the aim of obtaining charcoal and, at the same time, a hydrogen-rich gas fraction. The pyrolysis has been carried out in a laboratory scale continuous screw reactor, where [...] Read more.
Woody biomass waste (Pinus radiata) coming from forestry activities has been pyrolyzed with the aim of obtaining charcoal and, at the same time, a hydrogen-rich gas fraction. The pyrolysis has been carried out in a laboratory scale continuous screw reactor, where carbonization takes place, connected to a vapor treatment reactor, at which the carbonization vapors are thermo-catalytically treated. Different peak temperatures have been studied in the carbonization process (500–900 °C), while the presence of different Ni-containing catalysts in the vapor treatment has been analyzed. Low temperature pyrolysis produces high liquid and solid yields, however, increasing the temperature progressively up to 900 °C drastically increases gas yield. The amount of nickel affects the vapors treatment phase, enhancing even further the production of interesting products such as hydrogen and reducing the generated liquids to very low yields. The gases obtained at very high temperatures (700–900 °C) in the presence of Ni-containing catalysts are rich in H2 and CO, which makes them valuable for energy production, as hydrogen source, producer gas or reducing agent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)
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13 pages, 5112 KiB  
Article
Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis of Kraft Lignin over Hierarchical HZSM-5 and Hβ Zeolites
by Yadong Bi, Xiaojuan Lei, Guihua Xu, Hui Chen and Jianli Hu
Catalysts 2018, 8(2), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8020082 - 14 Feb 2018
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 4410
Abstract
The hierarchical HZSM-5 and Hβ zeolites were prepared by alkaline post-treatment methods adopting Na2CO3, TMAOH/NaOH mixture, and NaOH as desilication sources, respectively. More mesopores are produced over two kinds of zeolites, while the micropores portion is well preserved. The [...] Read more.
The hierarchical HZSM-5 and Hβ zeolites were prepared by alkaline post-treatment methods adopting Na2CO3, TMAOH/NaOH mixture, and NaOH as desilication sources, respectively. More mesopores are produced over two kinds of zeolites, while the micropores portion is well preserved. The mesopores formed in hierarchical Hβ zeolites were directly related to the basicity of the alkaline solution, indicating that Hβ zeolite is more sensitive to the alkaline post-treatment. The hierarchical HZSM-5 and Hβ zeolites are more active than the parent one for catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of Kraft lignin. Hierarchical zeolites retained the function of acid catalysis, while additionally creating larger mesopores to ensure the entry of bulkier reactant molecules. The increase of the condensable volatiles yield can be attributed to the improvement of the mass transfer performance, which correlates well with the change of mesoporous surface area. In particular, the condensable volatiles yield for the optimized hierarchical Hβ reached approximately two times that of the parent Hβ zeolites. In contrast to the parent HZSM-5, the optimized hierarchical HZSM-5 zeolite significantly reduced the selectivity of oxygenates from 27.2% to 3.3%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)
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Review

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45 pages, 1823 KiB  
Review
Catalytic Pyrolysis of Biomass and Polymer Wastes
by Laibao Zhang, Zhenghong Bao, Shunxiang Xia, Qiang Lu and Keisha B. Walters
Catalysts 2018, 8(12), 659; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal8120659 - 13 Dec 2018
Cited by 111 | Viewed by 13202
Abstract
Oil produced by the pyrolysis of biomass and co-pyrolysis of biomass with waste synthetic polymers has significant potential as a substitute for fossil fuels. However, the relatively poor properties found in pyrolysis oil—such as high oxygen content, low caloric value, and physicochemical instability—hampers [...] Read more.
Oil produced by the pyrolysis of biomass and co-pyrolysis of biomass with waste synthetic polymers has significant potential as a substitute for fossil fuels. However, the relatively poor properties found in pyrolysis oil—such as high oxygen content, low caloric value, and physicochemical instability—hampers its practical utilization as a commercial petroleum fuel replacement or additive. This review focuses on pyrolysis catalyst design, impact of using real waste feedstocks, catalyst deactivation and regeneration, and optimization of product distributions to support the production of high value-added products. Co-pyrolysis of two or more feedstock materials is shown to increase oil yield, caloric value, and aromatic hydrocarbon content. In addition, the co-pyrolysis of biomass and polymer waste can contribute to a reduction in production costs, expand waste disposal options, and reduce environmental impacts. Several promising options for catalytic pyrolysis to become industrially viable are also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalytic Pyrolysis)
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