Acid-catalysed treatment of the mallee leaf bio-oil with methanol: Effects of molecular structure of carboxylic acids and esters on their conversion

Xun Hu, Daniel Mourant, Yi Wang, Liping Wu, Weerawut Chaiwat, Richard Gunawan, Mortaza Gholizadeh, Caroline Lievens, Manuel Garcia-Perez, Chun Zhu Li*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Acid-treatment of the bio-oil from the pyrolysis of mallee leaves in methanol over a solid acid catalyst Amberlyst 70 has been investigated in this study. The reactivities of the carboxylic acids with methanol were quite different over the solid acid catalyst, which was closely related to their distinct molecular structures. The linear alkyl substituted groups, the branched alkyl substituted groups, and the aromatic carbon chain of the acids created the different steric hindrances, which negatively affected their accessibility to the catalytic sites on/in the solid acid catalyst. Similar steric effects were found in the conversion of the heavy esters into small esters via transesterification. In addition to the esterification/transesterification, the methanolysis of the olefin and decomposition of the oligomers in bio-oil occurred simultaneously during the acid treatment, which converted the reactive components into the relatively volatile and stable ones and improved the quality of the bio-oil.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)569-576
Number of pages8
JournalFuel processing technology
Volume106
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bio-oil
  • Carboxylic acids
  • Esterification
  • Mallee leaves
  • Solid acid catalyst
  • ITC-ISI-JOURNAL-ARTICLE

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Acid-catalysed treatment of the mallee leaf bio-oil with methanol: Effects of molecular structure of carboxylic acids and esters on their conversion'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this