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This work aims to investigate the de-acidification of organic liquid products, obtained by catalytic cracking of palm oil ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq) using Na 2 CO 3 as catalyst, by fractional distillation. The distillation of OLP carried out in laboratory, using columns of different heights with and without reflux, and in pilot scale. OLP and distillation fractions physicochemical characterized for density, kinematic viscosity, acid value, saponification value, refractive index, ester index, free fatty acids, flash point, and copper strip corrosion. The OLP analyzed by GC–MS and FT-IR, and light diesel-like fractions by FT-IR, NMR, and GC–MS. The experiments carried out in laboratory scale with and without reflux showed biofuels (distillates) yields between 62.15 and 76.41% and 71.65 and 89.44% (wt.), respectively, while that in pilot scale was 32.68% (wt.). For the experiments in laboratory scale, the yields of distillates decrease exponentially with column height, with and without reflux, while those of bottoms products increase exponentially. In addition, the yields of distillates and gas increase with increasing Na 2 CO 3 content, while that of bottom products decrease. The yield of light diesel-like fractions, with and without reflux ranged between 48.82 and 63.18, and 20.23 and 21.43% (wt.), respectively. The column height had no significant effect on the density of distillation fractions, with and without reflux. The densities of gasoline, kerosene, and light diesel with reflux, superpose exactly those of kerosene, light diesel, and heavy diesel without reflux. The kinematic viscosity of distillation fractions decreases with increasing column height for the experiments with and without reflux, while the acid values decrease. For the distillation experiments in pilot scale, the acid values of gasoline, kerosene, and light diesel-like fractions were 0.33, 0.42, and 0.34 mg KOH/g. FT-IR of distillation fractions in pilot scale and NMR of light diesel-like fraction in laboratory scale, column height of 50 cm, under reflux identified the presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons and the absence of carbonyl groups. The GC–MS analysis identified in OLP composition 92.84% (area.) hydrocarbons and 7.16% (area.) oxygenates. The light diesel-like fraction contains 100% hydrocarbons with an acid value of 0.34 mg KOH/g, density of 0.7862 g/cm 3 , and kinematic viscosity of 1.52 mm 2 s −1 , proving the feasibility of OLP de-acidification by fractional distillation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the influence of catalyst content on the physicochemical properties (acid value, saponification value, specific gravity, kinematic viscosity, and flash point), yield and chemical composition (hydrocarbons and oxygenates) of organic liquid products (OLP) obtained by thermal-catalytic cracking of palm oil ( Elaeis guineensis , Jacq.) has been systematically investigated in technical scale. The pilot experiments were carry out in a stirred tank slurry reactor of 143 L, operating in batch mode at 450 °C and 1.0 atm, using 5, 10, 15, and 20% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 as catalyst. The catalyst has been characterized by XRF and SEM techniques. The organic liquid products have been physicochemical characterized for acid and saponification values, specific gravity, refractive index, kinematics viscosity, copper strip corrosion, and flash point. The chemical composition of organic liquid products was determined by GC–MS. The experimental results indicate that initial cracking temperature, as well as specific gravity, kinematic viscosity, acid value, and saponification value of OLP show a tendency to decrease with increasing catalyst content. Hydrocarbons and oxygenates were the major chemical compounds present in OLP, with chemical composition strongly dependent on the catalyst content. The major hydrocarbons present in the organic liquid products have carbon chain length ranging from C 12 to C 15 and its summation shows a tendency to increase with increasing catalyst content, while the summation of oxygenate compounds shows a tendency to decrease. In addition, the distribution of hydrocarbons classes (normal paraffins, olefins, and naphthenics) present in OLP shows a maximum concentration for normal paraffins and naphthenics and a minimum concentration for olefins using 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 as catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to investigate the effect of catalytic cracking of residual fat, oils, and grease (FOG) from grease traps in different production scales (bench, laboratory, and pilot) on the reaction products yields and OLP properties and the feasibility to produce kerosene-like hydrocarbons. The cracking experiments were carried out in batch mode at 450 °C and 1.0 atmosphere, with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 using a laboratory scale cylindrical borosilicate-glass reactor of 143 mL, a bench scale stirred tank slurry reactor of 1.5 L, and a pilot scale stirred tank slurry reactor of 143 L (≈1:10:1000). The reaction liquid products were physical and chemical analyzed for acid and saponification values, density, kinematic viscosity, refractive index, and copper strip corrosion. FT-IR analysis provided the qualitative chemical composition of OLP obtained in bench, laboratory, and pilot scales, as well as kerosene, light and heavy diesel-like hydrocarbons fractions obtained by distillation of OLP produced in pilot scale with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 . The chemical compositions of OLP and kerosene-like hydrocarbons fraction obtained in pilot scale determined by NMR and GC–MS. The results showed an OLP yield ranging from 62.90 to 66.57% (wt.), a coke yield ranging between 7.02 and 9.79% (wt.), and a gas yield ranging from 16.32 to 22.40% (wt.), showing a mean absolute percentage deviation of 2.12%, 11.88%, and 14.91% for OLP, gas, and coke yields respectively, obtained in different production scales (≈10:1000). The OLP acid values varied from 19.08 to 10.45 mg KOH/g, the density between 0.820 and 0.835 g/cm 3 , and the kinematic viscosity from 3.28 to 4.21 mm 2 s −1 . The yield of kerosene-like hydrocarbons fraction average 14.90% (wt.) with an acid value of 5.43 mg KOH/g, density of 0.740 g/cm 3 , and kinematic viscosity of 0.66 mm 2 s −1 , while those of light and heavy diesel-like hydrocarbons fractions average 32.01% (wt.) and 19.35% (wt.) respectively. FT-IR and NMR analysis of OLP and kerosene-like hydrocarbons fraction confirms the presence of functional groups characteristic of hydrocarbons (alkenes, alkanes, ring-containing alkenes, and ring-containing alkanes, and cycloalkanes) and oxygenates (carboxylic acids, ketones, fatty alcohols, and dienes). The GC–MS analysis of OLP and kerosene-like hydrocarbons fraction obtained in pilot scale with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 identified in OLP 76.97% hydrocarbons (39.44% alkenes, 31.91% alkanes, 4.12% ring-containing alkenes, and 1.50% ring-containing alkenes) and 23.03% oxygenates (12.14% carboxylic acids, 6.98% ketones, 1.90% fatty alcohols, and 2.01% dienes). The kerosene-like hydrocarbons fraction is composed by 94.62% (area) hydrocarbon (44.99% alkenes, 29.61% alkanes, 7.58% ring-containing alkenes, 6.15% ring-containing alkanes, 4.31% cycloalkanes, and 1.98% aromatics) and 5.38% (area) oxygenates (5.38% carboxylic acids), showing that catalytic cracking of scum from grease traps with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 is technically feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the residual fat material (scum) from grease traps were submitted to catalytic cracking in order to systematically investigate the feasibility to produce light and heavy diesel-like fractions. The cracking reactions were carried out in a stirred tank slurry reactor of 143 L, operating in batch mode at 450 °C and 1.0 atmosphere; using 5, 10, and 15% (wt.) activated Red Mud obtained by calcination at 1000 °C as catalyst. The catalyst was prepared and characterized by FT-IR, XRF, XRD, SEM, EDX, and BET. The organic liquid products (OLP) were physical chemistry analyzed for acid and saponification values, specific gravity, refractive index, kinematic viscosity, flash point, and copper strip corrosion using AOCS and ASTM methods. The chemical composition of OLP, light and heavy diesel-like fractions were determined by FT-IR and GC–MS. The results showed an average OLP yield ranging from 62.34 to 75.92% (wt.) with acid values between 84.65 and 109.55 mg KOH/g, saponification values between 104.93 and 132.52 mg KOH/g, and kinematic viscosity between 10.96 and 14.08 mm 2 s −1 . For OLP obtained with 5% (wt.) activated Red Mud, the yield of light diesel-like fraction average 6.39% (wt.) with an acid value of 126.24 mg KOH/g, while that of heavy diesel-like fraction average 41.33% (wt.) with an acid value of 94.18 mg KOH/g. FT-IR analysis of OLP and diesel-like fractions confirms the presence of functional groups characteristic of hydrocarbons (alkenes, alkanes, ring-containing alkanes, and aromatics) and oxygenates (carboxylic acids, ketones, and esters). The GC-MS analysis of OLP and light diesel-like fraction obtained with 15% (wt.) activated Red Mud confirms that OLP is composed by 37.49% of hydrocarbons (10.83% alkenes, 14.16% alkanes, and 12.50 ring-containing alkanes) and 62.51% of oxygenates (59.49% carboxylic acids, 1.14% ketones, and 1.88 allyl esters). The light diesel-like fraction is composed by 73.86% of hydrocarbons (29.98% alkenes, 29.38% alkanes, 11.75% ring-containing alkanes, and 2.78% aromatics), and 26.14% of oxygenates compounds (23.48% carboxylic acids and 2.66% ketones), showing that thermal-catalytic cracking of scum from grease traps using activated red mud as catalyst is technically feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the production of light diesel like fractions by thermal catalytic cracking of crude palm oil ( Elaeis guineensis , Jacq.) has been systematically investigated in pilot scale. The cracking reactions were carried out in a reactor of 143 L, operating in batch mode at 450 °C and atmospheric pressure, using 20% (w/w) sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) as catalyst. The reaction products called organic liquid products (OLP) were submitted to distillation using a laboratory scale column (Vigreux Column) of three stages in order to obtain light diesel like fractions. The catalyst has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, TGA and DTG. The OLP and the green diesel fractions have been physical–chemical characterized by officials AOCS, ASTM, and ABNT/NBR methods in terms of acid value, saponification value, density, refraction index, kinematics viscosity, copper strip corrosion, carbon residue, flash point, and distillation curve. The chemical composition of green diesel has been determined by FTIR spectroscopy and GC–MS. The results show that the process yield on OLP was 65.86% (w/w) with an acid value of 1.02 mg KOH/g OLP and kinematic viscosity of 1.48 mm 2 /s, 30.24% (w/w) non-condensable gases, 2.5% (w/w) water, and 1.4% (w/w) coke. The yield on green diesel obtained by distillation average 24.9% (w/w), presenting an acid value of 1.68 mg KOH/g green diesel and kinematic viscosity of 1.48 mm 2 /s. The GC–MS analysis indicated that green diesel is composed of 91.38% (w/w) of hydrocarbons (31.27% normal paraffins, 54.44% olefins and 5.67% of naphthenics), and 8.62% (w/w) of oxygenates compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]