PEFTEC PEFTEC

PEFTEC - Abstract


Abstract Title: SFC-ESI-MS for the nontarget analysis of oxygenates in catalytic fast pyrolysis oils
Abstract Type: Seminar
Session Choice: Analytical
Presenter Name: Dr Josephine Lübeck
Company/Organisation: University of Copenhagen
Country: Denmark

Abstract Information :

While pyrolysis oils offer an alternative energy resource towards petroleum, they require upgrading (e.g., by hydrodeoxygenation) to obtain a useful product. The chemical characterization of pyrolysis oils is of great interest to identify components that may hinder the catalytic upgrading process. Supercritical fluid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (SFC-HRMS) using electrospray ionisation (ESI) is a valuable complementary tool to GC- and LC-based methods for the analysis of non-volatile and organic components in pyrolysis oils. The optimisation of the analytical parameters in SFC and MS is key to increase the selectivity and sensitivity in such complex matrices. Several feeds of pyrolysis oils (loblolly pine, pinus taeda) with varying oxygen content have been analysed. The pixel-based approach was applied on the base peak chromatograms to, first, visualise the chemical variation between the feeds, and second, prioritise the identification workflow and MS/MS analysis on the peaks with the highest relative concentration. Twenty-four regions of interest were tentatively identified, including mono- and polyphenols, fatty acids, and methylated and methoxylated phenols. The developed SFC-ESI-MS method demonstrates high repeatability and was capable to analyse oxygen-containing compounds with hydroxyl and/or carboxyl moieties of up to 400 Da.