Co-catalytic pyrolysis of biomass and waste triglyceride seed oil in a novel fluidized bed reactor to produce olefins and aromatics integrated with self-heating and catalyst regeneration processes

Abstract

The catalytic and co-catalytic pyrolysis of rice stalk and waste seed oil to produce olefins and aromatics were conducted in a novel reactor named the internally interconnected fluidized bed (IIFB) reactor. The IIFB system was specially designed for the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass, integrated with self-heating and catalyst regeneration functions in a single-bed reactor. The results show that catalytic fast pyrolysis of rice stalk produced up to a 20% total petrochemical (aromatic + olefin) carbon yield over an experimental time of 3 h. Co-catalytic fast pyrolysis of rice stalk and waste oil dramatically increased the petrochemical yield. A petrochemical yield of 64.8% was obtained at H/C_eff = 1.2. The pyrolysis and combustion temperatures were very stable, while char combustion and catalyst regeneration proceeded well in the reactor. This paper provides a new pathway for the catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass and some insights into how biomass resources can be used more efficiently to produce renewable petrochemicals.