Steam Cracking and Steam Reforming of Waste Cooking Oil in a Tubular Stainless Steel Reactor with Wall Effects

Abstract

Energy production from renewable feedstocks that would simultaneously solve ecological problems related to waste disposals would be very attractive. The present work is aimed at showing that atmospheric pressure thermal cracking of waste cooking oil in the presence of steam would be a potential option, particularly when the operating conditions direct the process either toward steam cracking or toward steam reforming in order to produce specific target bioenergy vectors: hydrogen, synthesis gas, or gaseous fuel. A commercial crude waste cooking oil (VEG) was selected as feed material. Using a bench-scale continuous flow tubular stainless steel reactor, experiments were conducted to study the final product distribution as a function of temperature, residence time of the feed material, extent of dilution, addition of a cracking initiator, and addition of a surface catalytic effect inhibitor. Several operating conditions of the VEG thermal cracking in the presence of steam were identified to meet the above-m...