Co-pyrolysis of oil sand bitumen with lignocellulosic biomass under hydrothermal conditions

Co-pyrolysis of oil sand bitumen and lignocellulosic biomass (corncob) under hydrothermal conditions was carried out to study the synergistic effects of oil sand bitumen and corncob under supercritical water conditions. Results have shown that the conversion of corncob to bio-oil is 75.8% and the dynamic viscosity of oil sand bitumen can be reduced from 6200 to 43 cP, simultaneously, within 40 min at 673 K and feedstock ratio of corncob: oil sand bitumen: water of 2:8:10 (mass), the coke generation from the bitumen by the co-pyrolysis is reduced significantly, compared with upgrading of oil sand bitumen individually in supercritical water; Besides, the unsaturated bond content of products was 1.36 mmol/g, reduced by 57.8%. Co-pyrolysis had eliminated the problem of high oxygen content in bio-oil, the oxygen content of the co-pyrolysis products reduced to 4.58% from 35.15% of bio-oil.