Hydrodeoxygenation of Acetic Acid in a Microreactor

Hydrodeoxygenation is one of the methods for upgrading pyrolysis oil into a high value biofuel. Acetic acid is one of the main constituents of pyrolysis oil; therefore it serves as a model compound for studying the hydrodeoxygenation of pyrolysis oil. . In this work, acetic acid was reacted with hydrogen in the presence of sulfided NiMo catalyst using a microreactor system. Studies of this reaction are conventionally carried out in continuous macroreactors which have mass and heat transfer limitations that lead to unfavorable operating conditions such as uneconomically long residence time, and extremely high H2 partial pressure. Due to high surface-to-volume ratio, microreactors possess enhanced heat and mass transfer. In this study, the performance of the microreactor was evaluated by studying the effect of different operating conditions on the space-time yield, selectivity, hydrogen consumption, and conversion of the acetic acid.