Production of aromatics by catalytic fast pyrolysis of cellulose in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor |
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Authors: | Pranav U. Karanjkar Robert J. Coolman George W. Huber Michael T. Blatnik Saba Almalkie Stephen M. de Bruyn Kops Triantafillos J. Mountziaris William C. Conner |
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Affiliation: | 1. Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin‐Madison, Madison, WI;2. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts‐Amherst, Amherst, MA;3. Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts‐Amherst, Amherst, MA |
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Abstract: | Catalytic fast pyrolysis of cellulose was studied at 500°C using a ZSM‐5 catalyst in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor constructed from a 4.92‐cm ID pipe. Inert gas was fed from below through the distributor plate and from above through a vertical feed tube along with cellulose. Flowing 34% of the total fluidization gas through the feed tube led to the optimal mixing of the pyrolysis vapors into the catalyst bed, which experimentally corresponded to 29.5% carbon aromatic yield. Aromatic yield reached a maximum of 31.6% carbon with increasing gas residence time by changing the catalyst bed height. Increasing the hole‐spacing in the distributor plate was shown to have negligible effect on average bubble diameter and hence did not change the product distribution. Aromatic yields of up to 39.5% carbon were obtained when all studied parameters were optimized. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1320–1335, 2014 |
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Keywords: | biomass conversion catalytic fast pyrolysis gas– solid fluidization K‐L model |
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