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Transformation of lignin to ethylbenzene can provide an important bulk raw material for the petrochemical industry. This work explored the production of ethylbenzene from lignin through the directional catalytic depolymerization of lignin into the aromatic monomers followed by the selective alkylation of the aromatic monomers. For the first step, the aromatics selectivity of benzene derived from the catalytic depolymerization of lignin reached about 90.2 C-mol% over the composite catalyst of Re-Y/HZSM-5 (25). For the alkylation of the aromatic monomers in the second step, the highest selectivity of ethylbenzene was about 72.3 C-mol% over the HZSM-5 (25) catalyst. The reaction pathway for the transformation of lignin to ethylbenzene was also addressed. Present transformation potentially provides a useful approach for the production of the basic petrochemical material and development of high-end chemicals utilizing lignin as the abundant natural aromatic resource.

Biomass conversion into benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) can provide basic feedstocks for the petrochemical industry, which also serve as the most important aromatic platform molecules for development of high-end chemicals. Present work explored a new route for transformation of bio-oil tar into BTX through current-enhanced catalytic conversion (CECC), involving the synergistic effect between the zeolite catalyst and current to promote the deoxygenation and cracking reactions. The proposed transformation shows an excellent BTX aromatics selectivity of 92.9 C-mol% with 25.1 wt.% yield at 400 °C over usual HZSM-5 catalyst. The study of the model compounds revealed that the groups such as methoxy, hydroxyl and methyl in aromatics can be effectively removed in the CECC process. Present transformation potentially provides an important approach for production of the key petrochemicals of BTX and the overall use of bio-oil tar derived from bio-oil or biomass.

Catalytic conversion of rice husk, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin into olefins was performed with HZSM-5 containing 6 wt.% lanthanum. The olefins yields for different feedstocks decreased in the order: cellulose > hemicellulose > sugarcane bagasse > rice husk > sawdust > lignin. Biomass containing higher content of cellulose or hemicellulose produced more olefins than feedstocks with higher content of lignin. Among the biomass types, sugarcane bagasse provided the highest olefin yield of 0.12 kg olefins/(kg dry biomass) and carbon yield of 21.2 C-mol%. Temperature, residence time and the catalyst/feed ratio influenced olefin yield and selectivity. While the HZSM-5 zeolite was catalytically active, the incorporation of lanthanum at 2.9, and 6.0 wt.% increased the production of olefins from rice husk by 15.6% and 26.5%, respectively. The conversion of biomass to light olefins potentially provides an alternative and sustainable route for production of the key petrochemicals.