Pyrolysis of residual palm oil in spent bleaching clay by modified tubular furnace and analysis of the products by GC-MS

摘要

In this study, spent bleaching clay containing 26.6 wt.% of residual palm oil was pyrolyzed using a tubular furnace. Carboxylic acids ranging from C_9-C_(18) and alkanes ranging from C_(10)-C_(44) were the major classes of compounds found in the pyrolytic products analyzed using GC-MS. Significant amounts of monoaro-matic compounds, alkenes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, nitrogenated compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were found in the bio-oil produced in this study. The bio-oil resulting from the pyrolysis process gave n-hexadecanoic acid as the major compound. Decomposition temperature of the adsorbed oil determined using TGA was found to be in the range of 573-683 K. Topographical and elemental analyses of the clay was done using SEM-EDX. The functional groups were determined using FTIR.