Valorization of corn straw for liquid hydrocarbon production via catalytic pyrolysis coupled with Phanerochaete chrysosporium pretreatment

A new method of pretreatment of corn straw with Phanerochaete chrysosporium combined with pyrolysis was proposed to improve the quality of bio-oil. The characterization results demonstrated that in fast pyrolysis, because of the enrichment of cellulose and the removal of lignin, the contents of acids, linear carbonyls, furans and sugars increased while the contents of phenols decreased. The total hydrocarbon and aromatics contents can significantly increase up to 34.37% and 30.59%, respectively, with 3 weeks pretreatment under catalytic pyrolysis. Meanwhile, due to the destruction of the biomass structure by microorganisms, the heavy bio-oil components of the biomass decreased, while the light bio-oil components increased. This method provides a new treatment idea for high quality utilization of biomass.