• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.18-27
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• 2002

Pine bark was liquefied in the presence of phenol using organic sulfonic acids as catalysts, and the liquefied barks were characterized. It was found that the organic sulfonic acids were more effective catalysts than hydrochloric acid for complete liquefaction of pine bark. The liquefied barks prepared from phenol-organic sulfonic acid liquefaction were highly phenolated, and the amounts of combined phenol were 2-3 times greater than that of the liquefied bark obtained from phenol-hydrochloric acid liquefaction. The glass transition points (Tg) were lower than that of the liquefied barks prepared from phenol-hydrochloric acid. It can be concluded that by using the organic sulfonic acids, the phenol used as a liquefying reagent is highly introduced into the bark, resulting in the phenolated bark preventing further condensation reactions, which may occur during the liquefaction. The carbohydrates such as cellulose and hemicellulose in the liquefied barks were almost decomposed during the liquefaction, from the results of IR spectra and neutral sugar analyses. Energy dispersive X-ray spectromery (EDS) results from the residues and the liquefied barks showed that the organic sulfonic acid catalysts did not lead to serious corrosion of the reactor compared with the hydrochloric acid catalyst.