As previously mentioned, deoxygenation involves the removal of functionality of biomass constituents associated with — OH, — COOH, and — C=O. The bond dissociation energies (BDE) for these functional groups are quite high and can be written in descending order as follows:

C-O (1076.5 kJ/mol) > C=O ( 749 kJ/mol) > C-C (610.0 kJ/mol) > O-H (429.99 kJ/mol) > C-H (338.4 kJ/mol).

Higher BDE for a particular functional group implies that the activation energy required for dissociating this bond (deoxygenation) would also be high. This would dictate rigorous reaction conditions for particularly C-O and C=O bond scissions. The presence of large amount of C=O groups in the pyrolysis products can be related to the higher activation energies required for dissociation of these bonds. However, using appropriate catalysts, these high activation energies could be overcome.