Ruben CHECA, Research Engineer in the "Heterogeneous Catalysis for Energy Transition" (CATREN) team at the Institute for Research on Catalysis and the Environment (IRCE) LYON UMR 5256.

The CATREN team at IRCELYON develops biofuels from biomass produced through thermochemical conversion processes (pyrolysis, hydrothermal, etc.). Within the team, I am primarily responsible for chromatography techniques (GCxGC, TOF, MS, SEC, etc.) and for developing data analysis and chemometric tools. The bio-oils produced by these processes and their conversion products consist of monomers and oligomers, only a fraction of which can be vaporized and analyzed by gas chromatography. Therefore, the only information we can obtain about the macromolecules comes from results obtained by gel permeation chromatography (GPC).

Thanks to Infranalytics, the collaboration that began four years ago with the MassLor platform at the FT-ICR MS site in Metz has provided us with unparalleled information regarding the understanding of these oligomers and a unique perspective on the conversion of oligomer families according to operating conditions. The FT-ICR MS data, combined with statistical analyses, allows for a better understanding of the transformation of these macromolecules, showing, for example, a decrease in H/C and DBE values ​​over time, indicating the formation of less unsaturated compounds. These results provide valuable information on the hydroconversion of contaminants present in HTL algae bio-oil and are essential for improving treatment processes usable on an industrial scale.

Find out more: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5c00575

Platform used: MassLor-LCP-A2MC, University of Lorraine