The aromatics industry produces approximately 110 million tons of benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) annually. As a result of the strong drive towards a circular (bio-)economy, the demand for circular and biobased BTX has increased remarkably in recent years. Circular carbon sources such as end-of-life plastics and biomass are of interest to partly replace fossil resources for the production of BTX. Catalytic pyrolysis is an attractive approach, though techno-economic viability needs to be improved, e.g. by improving BTX yields and lowering the catalyst consumption. In my presentation, I will address the following technical challenges of bio-BTX production in the biorefinery by taking glycerol to aromatics as an example.

1. In-situ and ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis approaches – Which one is preferable?
2. Low BTX yield – How to enhance the BTX productivity over the zeolite catalysts?
3. Reversible and irreversible catalyst deactivation – How to prolong the catalyst life-time and inhibit irreversible catalyst deactivation?
4. Frequent catalyst regeneration in a fixed-bed reactor – How to recycle catalyst for catalytic reaction-regeneration cycles?
5. Leveraging the existing refinery infrastructure – How to co-produce bio-BTX in an FCC reactor?

Reference: S. He et al., Benzenoid aromatics from renewable resources, Chemical Reviews 124 (2024) 10701-10876.

Songbo He is a professor at the Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and leads the Environmental Catalysis Engineering group. He obtained his Ph. D in Chemical Engineering/Industrial Catalysis (for refinery) at the DICP in 2009 and his second Ph. D in Chemical Engineering/Sustainable Catalysis (for bio-refinery) at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands in 2022. His group focuses on the chemocatalytic recycling of circular carbon (lignocellulosic biomass, non-edible oil and fats, and end-of-life plastics) to renewable and biobased fuels and chemicals (sustainable aviation fuel and bio-based aromatics) via sustainable catalysis approaches (ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis, hydrogenation, and oxidation) at different technology readiness levels (TRL of 2-6).