Potential of producing high octane additives and hydrogen from biomass-derived oils

At present, natural gas, petroleum and coal are principal sources of fuels and a large variety of chemicals. These fossil-derived fuels usually contain sulfur and nitrogen compounds which are not desirable due to their release of pollutants such as SO/sub 2/, NO/sub x/ and carbon dioxide. Hence, there is a strong interest in developing alternative and renewable sources of liquid fuels which are 'environmentally friendly'. Wood (or biomass) derived oils are attracting increasing interest in this respect. The major advantages of using biomass-derived oils are that they are almost sulfur and nitrogen free and also are carbon dioxide neutral. In this paper, the potential of producing high octane additives and hydrogen from biomass-derived oils is discussed by the authors.