Patent ID: 8158842

Claim:
A process for obtaining chemical precursors from biooil, the process comprising the steps of: lightly hydrotreating the biooil, wherein the lightly hydrotreating conditions comprises a temperature between 300° C. and 400° C., under a hydrogen partial between preferably between 670 kPa and 13.8 MPa, and at space velocities (WHSV) from 0.1 hr −1 to 5.0 hr −l ; separating the biooil after the step of lightly hydrotreating into a first stream comprising a water-soluble phase and a second stream comprising pyrolytic lignin; lightly hydrotreating the pyrolytic lignin phase to increase the yields of oxygenated compounds; concentrating the water-soluble phase by removing water thereby creating a concentrated organic phase of organic compounds comprising ketones, alcohols, phenols, carboxylic acids, carbohydrates, and mixtures thereof; and passing the concentrated organic phase to a catalytic reactor to upgrade the organic compounds.