Hydro-conversion of palm oil via continuously pyrolytic catalysis to biofuels over oxide-based catalyst derived from waste blood clamshell: Effect of magnesium contents

Abstract

The aims of this work were (i) to develop and characterize the cheap and efficient CaO/MgO catalyst with a source of CaO from waste blood clamshell mix with MgO, and (ii) to study the catalyst efficiencies on biofuel production via continuous packed-bed reactor under atmospheric pressure without any purge gases. The chemical and physical properties of the catalyst were characterized by many techniques. The results can confirm that the ball-mill technique successfully prepared CaO and MgO catalysts. The specific surface area was increased with the increasing of Mg contents. The surface morphologies of calcined catalysts were obvious in a roughly spherical shape. The results were found that not only the Mg content was a significant effect on product and distilled yields, but also reaction temperature was a significant effect as well. The highest pyrolytic oil, derived from 10 %wt Mg catalyst with reaction temperature at 525 °C, was about 80 %, and it can be distilled almost 100 % following ASTM D86. The pyrolytic oils were purified into three types of biofuel, and then the properties of distilled products were examined. The heating values and kinetic viscosity were on standard values except for acidity. Surprisingly, the acidity was decreased comparing with raw material.