Hydrothermal liquefaction-isomerization of biomass for biofuel production

During the last years, a lot of research activity has been devoted to a biomass conversion into liquid fuels. In order to produce fuels of the same quality as those obtained from crude oil, an appropriate conversion technology is required. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of biomass is a catalytic process that is considered to be a very promising technology for biofuel production. HTL products have a relatively high content of gasoline and diesel fractions, low oxygen content and high heating value. Moreover, HTL does not require a drying of the raw materials prior to conversion that allows a significant reduction of the price of the biofuel. We developed a new catalytic system for HTL, consisting of halloysite nanotubes as aluminosilicate carrier and strontium/titanium/tin oxide as an isomerizing component. Due to the sufficiently high specific surface area of halloysite nanotubes, a higher content of gasoline fraction in biocrude products was achieved. In addition, the introduction of the isomerizing component significantly increased the octane number of the gasoline fraction.