Influence of active phase loading in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of ethylene glycol over promoted MoS₂/MgAl₂O₄ catalysts

Catalytic fast hydropyrolysis can be used to convert solid lignocellulosic biomass into liquid fuels by combined fast pyrolysis and catalytic hydro-deoxygenation (HDO) [1]. The advantage of this technique is that the pyrolysis vapors can be deoxygenated and stabilized against polymeriza-tion immediately when formed, since fast pyrolysis occurs in the pres-ence of an HDO catalyst and hydrogen. Promoted MoS2 catalysts are active and selective for HDO [2]. Since the cellulosic part of biomass contributes to polymerization and coking [3], a key focus of the catalyst and process development is to investigate HDO of cellulose and hemicel-lulose derived compounds. Ethylene glycol (EG) represents these com-pounds and was used as model compound in this work.