One-pot direct conversion of bamboo to aromatics under methane

Abstract The direct conversion of bamboo to aromatics was investigated over Zn and/or Ga modified zeolite catalysts under a methane environment. Aromatics are the main liquid products from bamboo conversion on a batch reactor. The reaction over Zn-Ga/ZSM5(30) gives 19.2 wt% yield of aromatics with 55.6% selectivity towards BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) at 400 °C. Zn loading promotes the deoxygenation of oxygenated intermediates from bamboo decomposition and favors the formation of BTEX. Ga addition has little effect on BTEX selectivity but improves the aromatics yield. The presence of methane has a negligible impact on residue reduction, however, methane co-existence could benefit the formation of aromatics. Acidity characterization using pyridine and ammonia as probes shows HZSM5 modification with Zn and Ga species significantly increase the number of weak acidic sites. The catalyst with abundant acidic sites, particularly, weak acidic sites, would be beneficial for the conversion of bamboo to aromatics with higher BTEX selectivity. More aromatics with less residue can be produced from bamboo with higher holocellulose content. The results reported in this work could contribute to a better understanding of bamboo conversion into valuable chemicals and cost-efficient utilization of biomass resources.