Producing petrochemicals from catalytic fast pyrolysis of corn fermentation residual by-products generated from citric acid production

Xiangyu Li, Guangyu Li, Jian Li, Yanqing Yu, Yu Feng, Qun Chen, Sridhar Komarneni and Yujue Wang

Renewable Energy, 2016, vol. 89, issue C, 331-338

Abstract: Citric acid production from corn fermentation generates significant amounts of fermentation residual by-products that need to be disposed of. To valorize the corn fermentation residues (CFRs), this study investigated catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of CFRs alone or with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) to produce petrochemicals (aromatic hydrocarbons and olefins) using ZSM-5 zeolites as the catalyst. Results indicate that ZSM-5 zeolites decreased the activation energy of CFRs thermal decomposition by ∼15%. In addition, the introduction of ZSM-5 dramatically changed the compositions of condensable products from predominantly oxygenated compounds (e.g., furans, ketones, and acids) in non-CFP of CFRs to essentially aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX)) in CFP. Petrochemical yield of 30.4 C% was obtained in CFP of CFRs alone, and further improved to 40.3–52.1 C% when 10–33.3 wt.% LDPE was co-fed with CFRs in CFP. Important primary petrochemicals (BTX, ethylene and propylene) constituted the predominant fractions (66.8–71.1%) of the petrochemical products from CFP of CFRs alone and co-feed CFP with LDPE. These results indicate that CFRs are an attractive biomass feedstock for the production of high value-added petrochemicals by CFP process.

Keywords: Pyrolysis; Catalysis; Zeolite; Aromatic hydrocarbon; Olefin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:89:y:2016:i:c:p:331-338

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.11.077

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