Liquefaction of biomass as a source of fuels or chemicals

Abstract

Although biomass is one of the few renewable sources of liquid fuels and chemicals, relatively little work has been carried out on its direct liquefaction. Here, we report that wood or cellulose can be almost totally converted to liquids or gases when heated under pressure to 350 °C in the presence of phenol, water, an acid or base catalyst, and either hydrogen or nitrogen. The resultant liquids were separated into a neutral fraction, which was partly characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and found to contain mainly aromatic compounds with or without an oxygen-containing ring, and a phenolic fraction. The nature of these compounds was found to be dependent on the catalyst, but not appreciably on the physical conditions used.