State-of-the-art in biomass fast pyrolysis using acidic catalysts: direct comparison between microporous zeolites, mesoporous aluminosilicates and hierarchical zeolites

In this chapter, a direct comparison of the performance of the most representative conventional microporous zeolites, amorphous mesoporous aluminosilicates and hierarchical (meso/macroporous) zeolites in catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of biomass is presented, based on experiments performed under the same conditions in a bench scale fixed bed (down flow) reactor. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art on biomass CFP with these types of catalysts is also included, aiming to highlight the most representative previously reported results. On the basis of both the experimental and literature data, it was shown/verified that biomass CFP with acidic micro/meso/macroporous materials can be effectively utilized for tuning the composition and properties of the bio-oil, depending on its targeted final use as source of chemicals (phenolics, aromatics), as fuel additive (aromatics) or as biocrude for downstream hydrodeoxygenation toward hydrocarbon fuels.