Nickel catalysts could not only catalyze the APR of methanol but
also be general ones for the hydrogenation [18]. Ni as a kind of base
metal has a good potential to use in many industry fields compared
with noble metal catalysts such as Pt [19]. The purpose of this
paper is to develop new hydrogenation donors on the in situ
hydrogenation of the bio-oil and investigate the reaction process during the upgrading by the in situ hydrogenation of model compounds.
We upgraded model compounds and raw bio-oil using in
situ hydrogenation and proposed a new way in mild conditions
over Ni catalyst. The instability of bio-oil was for the instability
compounds such as ketones, aldehyde, and phenols. Acetone and
phenol as the typical compounds were suitable as the model
compounds to investigated the probability for the upgrading of
the bio-oil. Methanol was used for the hydrogen donor by APR in
stead of commercial hydrogen gas. The effect of conditions on
the performance of methanol’s APR and the coupling on the in situ
hydrogenation of acetone and phenol in liquid phase over Raney Ni
catalyst were studied. The contents of typical compositions in raw
and upgraded bio-oil and the possible reactions happened during
the in situ hydrogenation process were discussed.