Bio-oil can be obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass and maintains a closed carbon cycle with no net increase in atmospheric CO2 level, making the environment cleaner. However, the high content of oxygenates in bio-oil result in low heating values, chemical and thermal instability, and immiscibility with hydrocarbon fuels. One effective upgrading process is hydrotreatment using hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. We have synthesised a novel support for the catalyst based on bentonite clays by the pillarization technique, i.e. NiMoS/PILC and results showed that our catalysts were superior to commercial NiMoS/Al2O3. We would like to understand the details of the interaction between the catalyst and the adsorbate by using guaiacol as a lignin model compound. INS is ideally suited to investigation as shown by previous work on the closely related CoMo/Al2O3 hydrodesulfurisation catalyst.

Bio-oil can be obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass and maintains a closed carbon cycle with no net increase in atmospheric CO2 level, making the environment cleaner. However, the high content of oxygenates in bio-oil result in low heating values, chemical and thermal instability, and immiscibility with hydrocarbon fuels. One effective upgrading process is hydrotreatment using hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. We have synthesised the catalyst with a novel support based on bentonite clays by the pillarization technique, i.e. NiMoS/PILC and results showed that our catalysts were superior to commercial NiMoS/Al2O3. A crucial part of optimising the catalyst is to understand how the reactants move across the surface. To this end, we wish to use quasielastic neutron scattering to study the motion of a lignin model compound, guaiacol (2-methoxyphenol), as a liquid and in the adsorbed state.

Bio-oil is an alternative and renewable energy from biomass, however, its high content of oxygenates result in low heating values and chemical/thermal instability. One effective upgrading process is hydrotreatment using hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. We have synthesised a novel pillared clay catalyst, i.e.NiMoS/PILC and results showed that our catalysts were superior to commercial NiMoS/Al2O3. A crucial step in the reaction sequence is migration of adsorbed species to the active site. QENS is a well-established technique for measuring diffusion of adsorbates in microporous systems. However, it has been much less used for adsorbed species on supported catalysts. In our previous exploratory measurement, we demonstrated the measurement of guaiacol adsorbed on our catalysts. In this continuation we wish to compare the behaviour of benzyl phenyl ether adsorbed on a PILC and and a NiMoS/PILC.

Bio-oil is a renewable energy from biomass, however, its high content of oxygenates result in low heating values and chemical/thermal instability. One effective upgrading process is hydrotreatment using hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. We have synthesised a novel pillared clay catalyst, i.e. NiMoS/PILC and results showed that our catalysts were superior to commercial NiMoS/Al2O3. Here, we would like to understand the details of the interaction between the catalyst and the adsorbate using benzyl pheny ether as a lignin model compound. The use of a model compound of increasing complexity such as benzyl phenyl ether, compared to the previously investigated guaiacol, will reveal the factors that are crucial for binding lignin to the catalyst. INS is ideally suited for investigation of these black, highly absorbing materials, as shown by previous work on the closely related CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst.