The Indonesian government has recently passed a new policy regarding a mandatory regulation for all gas stations nationwide to replace existing diesel fuel to B-20 biofuel. Bio-oil is a promising source of biofuel which is readily obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass waste hence maintaining a closed carbon cycle making the environment cleaner. The high content of oxygenates in bio-oil, however, remains a problem that results in low heating values, chemical and thermal instability, and immiscibility with hydrocarbon fuels. One effective upgrading process is the hydrotreatment of bio-oil using a hydrodeoxygenation catalyst. We have synthesised a novel catalyst based on bentonite, i.e. NiMoS/PILC which show superior activity to the commercial NiMoS/Al2O3. To this end, we wish to use INS to study the details of the interaction between the catalyst and the compounds contained in bio-oil.