Chemist develops process to stabilize bio oil

Biorefining Magazine
Posted November 01, 2010

A chemist at the Ontario-based University of Guelph has developed a technique to use red mud as a catalyst to reduce the acid level in bio oil, making it more amenable to use as heating oil or as an input into the refining sector.

Bio oil is manufactured through the pyrolysis process, which involves the flash heating of biomass in the absence of air. The resulting substance can be ultimately used as a replacement for crude oil. However, high acid levels result in bio oil that is unstable, corrosive and impossible to store. According to Marcel Schlaf, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Gluelph who made the discovery, these problems occur because bio oil does not come out of the pyrolysis process as a mixture of stable compounds. Rather, it’s a mixture of compounds that can react with one another. Those reactions are catalyzed by the acids present in the mixture, he said.

Read more