Production of light olefins by catalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass with HZSM-5 zeolite impregnated with 6 wt.% lanthanum

Catalytic conversion of rice husk, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin into olefins was performed with HZSM-5 containing 6 wt.% lanthanum. The olefins yields for different feedstocks decreased in the order: cellulose > hemicellulose > sugarcane bagasse > rice husk > sawdust > lignin. Biomass containing higher content of cellulose or hemicellulose produced more olefins than feedstocks with higher content of lignin. Among the biomass types, sugarcane bagasse provided the highest olefin yield of 0.12 kg olefins/(kg dry biomass) and carbon yield of 21.2 C-mol%. Temperature, residence time and the catalyst/feed ratio influenced olefin yield and selectivity. While the HZSM-5 zeolite was catalytically active, the incorporation of lanthanum at 2.9, and 6.0 wt.% increased the production of olefins from rice husk by 15.6% and 26.5%, respectively. The conversion of biomass to light olefins potentially provides an alternative and sustainable route for production of the key petrochemicals.