Catalytic Pyrolysis of Biomass to Produce Specific High Value-added Furans and Aldehydes Chemicals

Using rape straw, corn straw and camphor wood powder as raw materials, ZnCl₂ was selected as a catalyst to carry out catalytic pyrolysis experiments in a horizontal tubular furnace reactor. The yields of the high value-added chemicals, e.g. furfural (FF), paraformaldehyde and 5-methylfurfural, in the bio-oil were taken as evaluation indexes. The results showed that the bio-oil yield of camphor wood powder was the highest, up to 51.76%, without catalyst. When ZnCl₂ was the catalyst with a mass ratio of 1:1 in the pyrolysis, the bio-oil yield of the three raw materials decreased. And the bio-oil yield of camphor wood powder (30.50%) decreased significantly. The yield of aldehydes in the bio-oil obtained from corn straw and camphor wood powder increased to 0.48% and 0.84%, respectively. After catalytic pyrolysis of rape straw, corn straw and camphor wood powder, the yield of furans in the bio-oil increased by 253.72%, 85.05%, and 202.32%, respectively. The yield of FF in bio-oil increased by 470.41%, 313.87%, and 340.99%, respectively. The yield of 5-methylfurfural increased by 318.18%, 200.00%, and 213.04%, respectively. Meanwhile, the yield of paraformaldehyde in the bio-oil obtained from the catalytic pyrolysis of corn straw by ZnCl₂ increased increased slightly.