NiCo/ZSM-5 revealed a bio-oil HDO deoxygenation degree of 39% and increase of the heating value of product oil to 33.3 MJ kg−1.

Performances of bimetallic catalysts (Ni-Co) supported on different acidic carriers (HZSM-5, HBeta, HY, ZrO 2 ) and corresponding monometallic Ni catalysts in aqueous phase hydrodeoxygenation of phenol were compared in batch and continuous flow modes. The results revealed that the support acidity plays an important role in deoxygenation as it mainly controls the oxygen-removing steps in the reaction network. At the same time, sufficient hydrothermal stability of a solid catalyst is essential. Batch experiments revealed 10Ni10Co/HZSM-5 to be the best-performing catalyst in terms of conversion and cyclohexane yield. Complementary continuous runs provided more insights into the relationship between catalyst structure, efficiency and stability. After 24 h on-stream, the catalyst still reveals 100% conversion and a slight loss (from 100% to 90%) in liquid hydrocarbon selectivity. The observed alloy of Co with Ni increased dispersion and stability of Ni-active sites, and combination with HZSM-5 resulted in a well-balanced ratio of metal and acid sites which promoted all necessary steps in preferred pathways. This was proved by studies of fresh and spent catalysts using various characterization techniques (N 2 physisorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed pyridine (pyr-IR)).

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Two series of bimetallic Ni-Co catalysts and corresponding monometallic catalysts with ca. 20 wt% metal loading were evaluated in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of phenol as a model compound for bio-oil. The bimetallic catalysts outperformed the corresponding monometallic catalyst in terms of conversion and cyclohexane selectivity. This could be attributed to the formation of Ni-Co alloy, which caused a decrease in metal particle size and stabilized Ni active sites in the near surface region. The balanced combination of formed Ni-Co alloy with acidity from supports allowed performing all individual steps in the reaction network toward desired products at high rate. Consequently, the two best-performing catalysts were tested in HDO of wood based bio-oil, showing that the bimetallic catalyst 10Ni10Co/HZSM-5 was more effective than 20Ni/HZSM-5 in terms of degree of deoxygenation and upgraded bio-oil yield. These findings might open an opportunity for development of a novel cheap but effective catalyst for a key step in the process chain from biomass to renewable liquid fuels.

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