Thermochemical treatment to produce chemicals from biomass and wastes
Bio-oil and, more in general oil from thermochemical treatment (e.g. bio-oil, gasification tars, hydrothermal liquefaction oils and hydrothermal gasification tars) is a feedstock for fuels and chemicals from renewables. Understanding its chemical nature is important for both the optimization of the process and the design of upgrading strategies. Thermochemical derived materials are complex matrices, whose composition is strongly affected by the feedstock type and by the process parameters and requires an array of complementary techniques (e.g. silica gel chromatography, methanolysis, size exclusion chromatography, analytical pyrolysis, elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric techniques) that must be coupled.
A main component of plant biomass, cellulose plays a key role in the route leading to viable chemicals from renewable resources. Pyrolysis is a thermal treatment that converts cellulose into a liquid material (bio-oil) containing dehydrated monomers. Catalytic pyrolysis direct pyrolysis toward new compounds that are characterized by new useful chemical structures which cannot be obtained easily from fossil resources. By using appropriate catalysts a multifunctional hydroxylactone (LAC) is the principal anhydromonosaccharide in cellulose pyrolysate. The significance of LAC as building block in organic synthesis was proved in collaborative studies that included the synthesis of polylactide copolymers and biomimetic compounds. Aim of the research is to increase selectivity of the conversion, improve isolation and subsequent utilization.
