Conversion of halophilic algae into extractable oil. 2. Pyrolysis of proteins

Abstract

The pyrolysis reactions with different solvents and reagents on different proteins, e.g., albumin, soyaprotein, lysozyme and algae-protein, show that there are no significant differences between the behaviour of proteins under those conditions. The reactions yield rather low conversions in the presence of water in spite of the existence of carbonates and catalysts, e.g. nickel sulphate. The presence of benzene improves the yield and the presence of a mixture of K-Mg-Mn salts is beneficial for such a reaction. The nitrogen content of liquid oil decreases in the presence of carbonates and other catalysts. The maximum amount of protein converted into liquid oil was 27% by weight for algae-proteins containing 5.7 wt% nitrogen. The existence of impurities does not affect the yield which is similar to the one obtained from pure proteinic compounds. The behaviour of the proteins under different temperatures and in various reaction mixtures is very similar to that found with algae.