Abstract
This study used thermal cracking with hydrogen (HTC) to produce bio-fuel oil (BFO) from jatropha oil (JO) and to improve its quality. We conducted HTC with different hydrogen pressures (PH2; 0–2.07 MPa or 0–300 psig), retention times (tr; 40–780 min), and set temperatures (TC; 623–683 K). By applying HTC, the oil molecules can be hydrogenated and broken down into smaller molecules. The acid value (AV), iodine value, kinematic viscosity (KV), density, and heating value (HV) of the BFO produced were measured and compared with the prevailing standards for oil to assess its suitability as a substitute for fossil fuels or biofuels. The results indicate that an increase in PH2 tends to increase the AV and KV while decreasing the HV of the BFO. The BFO yield (YBFO) increases with PH2 and tr. The above properties decrease with increasing TC. Upon HTC at 0.69 MPa (100 psig) H2 pressure, 60 min time, and 683 K temperature, the YBFO was found to be 86 wt%. The resulting BFO possesses simulated distillation characteristics superior to those of boat oil and heavy oil while being similar to those of diesel oil. The BFO contains 15.48% light naphtha, 35.73% heavy naphtha, 21.79% light gas oil, and 27% heavy gas oil and vacuum residue. These constituents can be further refined to produce gasoline, diesel, lubricants, and other fuel products.
Highlights
Animal fats and vegetable oils have been widely used as alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production in order to reduce the dependence on fossil-fuel-based diesel [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
Adebanjo et al [16] performed pyrolysis of lard with continuous feeding into a fixed bed at 873–1073 K, using nitrogen as the carrier gas. This produced a diesel-like fuel with a cetane index of 46, specific gravity of 0.86, and heating value (HV) of 40 MJ/kg
Used are about 36.07 mg KOH/g, 113.8 g I2 /100 g, 33.56 mm2 /s, and 917.8 kg/m3, respectively, which are similar to those obtained by Andrade-Tacca et al [3,4]
Summary
Animal fats and vegetable oils have been widely used as alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production in order to reduce the dependence on fossil-fuel-based diesel [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The crude oil gave oxygen-containing products and hydrocarbons (HCs) with a low mean molecular weight (MW), while the pre-hydrogenated oil produced HCs with a mean MW comparable to those of HCs in diesel. They found that Al2 O3 was better than MgO at producing a diesel-like fuel. Instead of applying conventional transesterification, pyrolysis using Pd/C catalyst was used by Ito et al [20] to convert waste animal fat and cooking oil into light-oil HCs in an autoclave reactor at 633–693 K This approach enhanced the selectivity for light oil at 453–623 K. Co-processing a mixture of JO with refinery gas oil while using sulfided Ni–Mo/Al2 O3 resulted in a diesel yield of 88%–92%. Simulated distillation of the BFO was carried out to analyze its fuel content, and the results were compared against those of various fuels
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