High-pressure
reactive distillation is a new bio-oil upgrading
technology that can achieve high yields of the distillate due to reduced
polymerization. Levoglucosan, as an anhydrous sugar, is one of the
major components of bio-oil from the pyrolysis of biomass. To understand
the reactive distillation of bio-oil at high pressure, the reactions
and distribution of levoglucosan during the high-pressure reactive
distillation of bio-oil were investigated in this study. Our results
indicate that levoglucosan would mainly undergo hydrolysis during
the high-pressure distillation, whereas thermal polymerization would
dominate during the atmospheric pressure distillation. The reaction
environment plays an important role in the levoglucosan reaction.
The increase in pressure, temperature, water, and acetic acid concentration
could accelerate levoglucosan conversion during bio-oil distillation,
especially via the hydrolysis reaction. Most of the levoglucosan during
the high-pressure reactive distillation could be converted into small
molecules and distilled out due to the presence of light components
retained in the liquid phase by high pressure. However, during the
atmospheric pressure distillation, most of the levoglucosan would
be mainly retained in the heavy residue to undergo polymerization
reactions.