Valorising Bio-oils from Starbon® Production

Abstract

This study seeks to valorizing bio-oils derived from Starbon® processing utilizing high amylose Hylon VII starch as feedstock and p-TSA as acid catalyst for the Starbonisation process with a particular emphasis on oil characterization and quantitation of known compounds. It has been demonstrated that bio-oils could be valorized from Starbon® processing, such valorization would improve the economics of the Starbon ® process as well as generate new products from what is currently a waste stream from the Starbon® production process In general, this study aims to valorize bio-oils derived from Starbon® processing by identifying platform molecules inside the oil, attempting to isolate the compounds utilizing SPE, and then converting them to other usable materials utilizing green chemistry concepts. However, Oils have been synthesized to obtain enough oil. This process was complex and slow (in part due to equipment availability) and oil yields were low while some characterization and chemistry was carried out on the oil. The majority of the work had to be carried out on artificial mixtures of some of the identified oil components in the presence of H-β zeolite as catalyst. Most reactions formed one or two main products, Presence of a catalyst did not change the identity of the products formed, but did increase the amount formed.