Efficient preparation of phenol-enriched bio-oil using cobalt-modified montmorillonite K-10 catalyst

The extraction of phenolic compounds from biomass is an important way to replace chemical synthesis techniques, and catalytic pyrolysis of biomass is an effective method to obtain phenolic compounds with high selectivity. In this work, cobalt-modified montmorillonite K-10(CMT) catalyst was prepared by using cobalt salt and montmorillonite K-10(MMT), and used to catalyze the pyrolysis of corn stalk(CS) to produce phenol-rich bio-oil. The catalytic pyrolysis characteristics reflected by the liquid and gaseous components were compared using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) and online mass spectrometry(online MS), and the catalytic pyrolysis behavior of corn stalk was analyzed by using the thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA). The addition of catalyst resulted in the increase of apparent activation energy of pyrolysis process but increased selectivity for phenolic compounds. Compared with the blank sample, the relative content of phenolic compounds in bio-oil increased by 11.99 %, and the selectivity of alkyl-phenols was stronger. In addition, the results also showed that the synthesized catalyst promoted the production of H2 and CH4 during the catalytic pyrolysis. The optimum ratio of the prepared catalyst was 6%Co/15%MMT. These works provide an alternative approach to upgrading bio-oil product.