Upgrading of Pyrolysis Bio-oil to Fuel over Supported Nanomaterials – A Review Madiha Yasir 1a , Sujan Chowdhury 1b* , Nurlidia Mansor 1c , Norani Muti Mohammad 2d , and Yoshimitsu Uemura 1e 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia 2 Fundamental and Applied Science Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia a madihamalik29@gmail.com, *b sujan.chowdhury@petronas.com.my, c nurlidia_mansor@petronas.com.my, d noranimuti_mohamed@petronas.com.my, e yoshimitsu_uemura@petronas.com.my mail Keywords: Bio-oil upgrading, Hydrodeoxygenation, Nanomaterials. Abstract. Upgrading of bio-oil obtained from pyrolysis of biomass is one of the most attractive ways to produce fuel both in technological and economical aspect. Development of cost-effective, long life, and highly active catalyst is a major challenge in this concern. Addition of support material to the nanocatalyst not only increases the life span of the catalyst but also offers more active sites as well as reduces the cost by lowering the amount of active metal used. Moreover, selection of appropriate support favors efficient dispersion of the active phase. The main focus of this review article is to look into the development of supported nanocatalysts in the past few decades and comparing catalytic performance and deactivation rate of catalysts in the upgrading of bio-oil to produce a value-aided and efficient transportation fuel. Overall, appreciable work has been done to improve the hydrodeoxygenation reaction using different nanosized rare earth metal support materials with enhanced catalytic efficiency and finally need to be implemented in industries for upgrading of pyrolysis bio-oil. Introduction World energy crisis is growing significantly and the demand for alternative sources of fuel is increasing day by day with inconsistent cost of gasoline. Due to this matter, scientists are looking towards natural resources, especially biomass, which is a renewable energy source [1]. Biomass is biologically-produced matter based on carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen as consisted in Table 1. Table 1: Moisture and oxygen content in bio-oil from different biomass sources [1–3]. Bio-oil sources Moisture content (wt%) Oxygen content (wt%) Corn cobs 25.00 36.90 Corn stover 9.00 37.94 Pine sawdust 38.30 40.10 Pine wood residue 11.00 51.70 Woody tar 8.30 23.30 Wheat hemlock 8.30 46.80 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 625 (2014) pp 357-360 © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.625.357 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 124.13.244.57-25/08/14,14:48:17)