
Lignocellulosic biomass represents a renewable and carbon-neutral resource for the production of bio-fuels and bio-chemicals. Indeed, the United States alone has the ability to provide more than 1.3 billion dry tons annually to supply bio-refineries, which is enough to address approximately one-third of current demand for transportation fuels in an environmentally compatible manner. There is a vast potential supply of sustainable renewable biomass from forest and fallow lands throughout the world. Lignocellulosic biofuels are a promising fuel platform since substantial amounts of plant/wood residual biomass are readily available, with no competition for food resources and with relatively low environmental impact. Over the last century, worldwide energy consumption has increased rapidly, and the known petroleum resources are predicted to be consumed in less than fifty years at present rates of consumption. These results show that the zeolite mixture of ‘Y + M’ manifests additive characteristics for pyrolysis. The molecular weight of the pyrolysis oil using a zeolite mixture of ‘Y + M’ was similar to the individual zeolite Y assisted pyrolysis. The yields of hydroxyl groups and other functional groups in the ‘Y + M’ generated bio-oil was between the individual Y and M generated oils. 31P NMR analysis of the phosphitylated bio-oils revealed that the mixture of ‘Y + M’ during pyrolysis could decrease the carboxyl groups by 84%, which is close to the effect of the M zeolite. The yields of pyrolysis products (light oil, heavy oil and char) from the zeolites combination ‘Y + M’ catalyzed pyrolysis ranged between the pyrolysis oil yields from zeolite Y or M catalyzed pyrolysis. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy including 13C, 31P of phosphitylated bio-oils, Heteronuclear Single-Quantum Correlation (HSQC)-NMR, and Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) were used to characterize the pyrolysis oils. The chemical structures of the subsequent pyrolysis oils were examined. A mixture of Y and M type zeolites were applied to pyrolyze kraft softwood (SW) lignin with the objective of studying the combination effect of different types of zeolite on pyrolysis.
