Enhanced production of naphtha-range compounds from arundo donax via catalytic fast pyrolysis using SAPO-11

Arundo donax, acknowledged for its elevated energy content, substantial biomass yield and rapid growth, stands as an alluring candidate for biofuel production. In this investigation, a molecular sieve-based catalyst was utilized to scrutinize the catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of Arundo donax, aiming for the production of naphtha-range compounds. The study also encompassed the evaluation of pyrolysis product yields within a fixed-bed reactor. The systematic exploration included an assessment of the impacts arising from catalyst type, temperature, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), and N 2 flow rate. The results demonstrated that at 500 °C, WHSV of 1 h −1 and N 2 flow rate of 300 ml/min, SAPO-11 exhibited a selectivity of 64.55% to naphtha-range compounds and 64.55% to isomerous naphtha-range compounds. This was in stark contrast to the control group, which contained no catalyst (with a selectivity of 41.40% and 3.19%, respectively), SAPO-41 (with a selectivity of 11.02% and 9.55%, respectively) and HZSM-5 (with a selectivity of 59.89% and 53.51%, respectively). Additionally, SAPO-11 yielded the highest bio-oil compared to other catalysts (SAPO-11 of 28.52 wt% > none of 19.48 wt% > HZSM-5 of 18.90 wt% > SAPO-41 of 13.11 wt%). The conclusions drawn from these findings imply that the synthesized SAPO-11 catalyst exhibited superior catalytic activity and isomerization proficiency in contrast to other catalysts (SAPO-41 and HZSM-5). Remarkably, under the specified conditions of SAPO-11 catalyst, temperature = 500 °C, WHSV = 1 h −1 and N 2 flow rate = 200 ml/min, the CFP process yielded a remarkable maximum absolute yield of the naphtha-range compound at 25.82 wt%, with an isomerized naphtha-range compound absolute yield of 25.35 wt%.