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A review on catalytic & non-catalytic bio-oil upgrading in supercritical fluids

  • Review Article
  • Open Access
  • Published: 10 June 2020
  • volume 15, pages 4–17 (2021)
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A review on catalytic & non-catalytic bio-oil upgrading in supercritical fluids
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  • Sainab Omar1,
  • Yang Yang1 &
  • Jiawei Wang1 

  • 1045 Accesses

  • 17 Citations

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Abstract

This review article summarizes the key published research on the topic of bio-oil upgrading using catalytic and non-catalytic supercritical fluid (SCF) conditions. The precious metal catalysts Pd, Ru and Pt on various supports are frequently chosen for catalytic bio-oil upgrading in SCFs. This is reportedly due to their favourable catalytic activity during the process including hydrotreating, hydrocracking, and esterification, which leads to improvements in liquid yield, heating value, and pH of the upgraded bio-oil. Due to the costs associated with precious metal catalysts, some researchers have opted for non-precious metal catalysts such as acidic HZSM-5 which can promote esterification in supercritical ethanol. On the other hand, SCFs have been effectively used to upgrade crude bio-oil without a catalyst. Supercritical methanol, ethanol, and water are most commonly used and demonstrate catalyst like activities such as facilitating esterification reactions and reducing solid yield by alcoholysis and hydrolysis, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK

    Sainab Omar, Yang Yang & Jiawei Wang

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  1. Sainab Omar
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  2. Yang Yang
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  3. Jiawei Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiawei Wang.

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Cite this article

Omar, S., Yang, Y. & Wang, J. A review on catalytic & non-catalytic bio-oil upgrading in supercritical fluids. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 15, 4–17 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-020-1933-x

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  • Received: 03 January 2020

  • Accepted: 07 March 2020

  • Published: 10 June 2020

  • Issue Date: February 2021

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-020-1933-x

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Keywords

  • bio-oil
  • upgrading
  • supercritical
  • review

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