Lignosulfonate was subjected to a
reductive catalytic degradation
in ethanol medium at 310 °C in the presence of alumina supported
NiMo catalysts and H2. The liquid and solid products were
analyzed with size exclusion chromatography (SEC), gas chromatography
mass spectrometry (GC–MS), two-dimensional gas chromatography
(GC × GC), heteronuclear single quantum coherence nuclear magnetic
resonance (HSQC NMR) and elemental analysis. The highest oil yield
and the lowest char yield obtained was 88 and 15 wt %, respectively.
The liquefied species were mainly dimers and oligomers with minor
yields of monomers. The catalyst was important for stabilization of
reactive intermediates either by hydrogenation or coupling with ethanol.
Simultaneous deoxygenation and desulfurization reactions took place
in the presence of the catalyst; the oxygen and sulfur content in
the oil fraction obtained after 4 h reaction time were 11.2 and 0.1
wt %, indicating considerable deoxygenation and desulfurization compared
to the lignosulfonate feedstock (O, 30.8 wt %; S, 3.1 wt %). The effect
of the reaction parameters such as temperature, reaction time and
catalyst mass was studied. It was observed that by increasing the
temperature from 260 to 310 °C the degradation increased, however,
the SEC analysis showed that the degradation progressed only to a
certain size range dimers to oligomers in the reaction temperatures
studied. Investigating the effect of reaction time of 1, 2, 3, and
4 h indicated that degradation, deoxygenation, desulfurization and
alkylation reactions progressed over time. The reusability of the
catalyst without any pretreatment was confirmed by an almost constant
oil yield in three repeated experiments with the same catalyst batch.
The results show that alumina supported NiMo catalysts are very promising
catalysts for conversion of lignosulfonate to liquid products.