Calcium formate assisted catalytic pyrolysis of pine for enhanced production of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over bimetal-modified HZSM-5

An efficient process was developed to selectively produce monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs) from ex-situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of pine assisted with calcium formate (CF) over bimetal-modified HZSM-5. Mo and another metal (Mg, Ga or Zn) were used to modify the HZSM-5, and the as-synthesized bimetal-modified HZSM-5 catalysts were utilized for both pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and lab-scale CFP tests with CF as a hydrogen donor to selectively obtain MAHs. The results revealed that the presence of CF and Mg-Mo modified HZSM-5 (0.5Mg1Mo/HZ) exhibited excellent capability for MAHs production with tiny generation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The maximum MAHs yield attained 12.79 wt% at 650 °C from Py-GC/MS with the CF-to-pine (CF-to-PN) ratio of 3 and catalyst-to-pine (CA-to-PN) ratio of 11, and became 9.67 wt% from lab-scale device with CF-to-PN and CA-to-PN ratios of 0.5 and 4, respectively. In addition, compared with HZSM-5, 0.5Mg1Mo/HZ possessed better anti-deactivation ability.