Upgrading of furans from in situ catalytic fast pyrolysis of xylan by reduced graphene oxide supported Pt nanoparticles

Abstract Fast pyrolysis has been recognized as an efficient and feasible way to produce liquid fuels from biomass. For the aim to upgrade the products from fast pyrolysis of hemicellulose, reduced graphene oxide supported Pt nanoparticles (Pt/RGO) was adopted as catalyst for in situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP). Pt/RGO was prepared by one-step thermal reduction method, and further employed as catalyst for in situ CFP of xylan. Online single-photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was employed to detect the volatile products, and furans were chosen as the model compounds. The experimental results showed that Pt/RGO distinctly increased the intensity of furans products from xylan pyrolysis, as the increase rates were respectively 80.5%, 64.4% and 50.2% in 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C. Furthermore, Pt/RGO can accelerate the process of xylan pyrolysis and be effective in eliminating oxygen for furans products. With addition of Pt/RGO, O/C ratio for furans products decreased from 0.38 to 0.32 in 400 °C, 0.37 to 0.32 in 500 °C, and 0.35 to 0.32 in 600 °C, respectively. This work proved that Pt/RGO had the potential to be a highly efficient catalyst for upgrading of the volatile products from in situ CFP of biomass.