Guidelines for Transportation, Handling, and Use of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil. 1. Flammability and Toxicity

Abstract

An alternative sustainable fuel, biomass-derived fast pyrolysis oil or “bio-oil”, is coming into the market in Europe. Fast pyrolysis pilot and demonstration plants for fuel applications producing tonnes of bio-oil are in operation, and commercial plants are under design. There will be increasingly larger amounts of bio-oil transportation on water and by land, leading to a need for further specifications and supporting documentation. The properties of bio-oil are different from conventional liquid fuels and, therefore, may need to overcome both technical and marketing hurdles for its acceptability in the fuels market. Multiple material safety data sheets (MSDSs) are currently being used by different producers, but there is a desire to update these as more information becomes available. In order to standardize bio-oil, quality specifications are being adopted. The first bio-oil burner fuel standard in ASTM D7544 was approved in 2010. CEN standardization has been initiated in Europe. In the EU, a new chemical regulation system REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) exists. Registration under REACH has to be perfomed if bio-oil is produced or imported into the EU. In the USA and Canada, bio-oil has to be filed under the TSCA (US Toxic Substances Control Act) and DSL (Domestic Substance List), respectively. In this paper, the state of the art on standardization is discussed, and new data for the transportation guidelines is presented. The focus is on flammability and toxicity.

Operando Spectroscopy of the Gas-Phase Aldol Condensation of Propanal over Solid Base Catalysts

“…Carbonation, initially present in the beginning of the test, could be due to contamination of the hydroxyapatite with CO 3 2− ions coming from atmospheric CO 2 when synthesized in air or storage [32]. Meanwhile the more intense bands at 1579 and 1547 cm − 1 are related to surface (PO x ) s -carbonates formed by weak PO 3 4− sites of the hydroxyapatite material [31]. In addition, the bands detected at 2179 and 2169 cm − 1 in the CO stretching region (Fig.…”

“…Given the high aldehyde content of pyrolytic bio-oils (up to 20 wt%), aldol condensation is particularly attractive as key intermediate deoxygenation reaction in bio-oil upgrading [3,4]. It allows one to reduce bio-oil corrosiveness as well as the oxygen content.…”

Transportation fuels from biomass fast pyrolysis, catalytic hydrodeoxygenation, and catalytic fast hydropyrolysis

“…The cellulosic and hemicellulosic part of biomass is responsible for the corrosive character (from acids) and instability (from light and reactive oxygenates) of bio-oil, see section 3.1. The pH of bio-oil is around 2.4-3.2 (see Table 1) [22,24,25,115], and acid proof materials should be used for storage [133]. Due to the high oxygen content, bio-oil contains reactive functional groups, which make the bio-oil unstable and polymerize when stored.…”

Pyrogenic carbon capture and storage

“…While the aqueous phase of the oil is well pumpable but has a low pH (<3), the heavy tar fraction is not well pumpable but has a more neutral pH, which would facilitate the intermediate storage of that fraction. The following bio‐oil properties should further be considered when planning for transport and storage: Bio‐oils are incapable of sustaining combustion and can be classified as nonflammable liquids (Oasmaa et al, ). Bio‐oil is slightly corrosive, and toxicity increases from fast to slow pyrolysis bio‐oils, which is associated with a higher concentration of PAHs (Blin, ). Bio‐oil has a high viscosity, commonly in the order of tens of centistokes, and the viscosity increases during storage (Mohan et al, ). Short‐term storage should be conducted in the type of containers recommended for fast pyrolysis oil (Oasmaa et al, ), which are composed of corrosion‐resistant steel and materials such as AISI 304, AISI 316, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). …”