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This work investigates the influence of temperature on the performance of hydrothermal carbonization of corn Stover between 175 and 250 °C, 240 min, 2.0 °C/min, and biomass-to-water ratio of 1:10. The performance analyzed for yields, energy densification and recovery. Aqueous phase analyzed for pH, acetic acid equivalent (HAc), HPLC, and GC, solid phase for dry and organic matter, ash, and elemental analysis. Solid yield (62.92–35.82%) increases with temperature, showing an inflection region between 200 and 225 °C, while that of liquid (35.43–54.59%) decreases in a similar behavior, and gas yield (1.49–9.59%) increases exponentially. GC identified alcohols, carboxylic acids, and furans. The concentration of furfural and Hidroxymethylfurfural (HMF) decreases exponentially and as a sigmoid with temperature, being not detectable at 250 °C. Carbon content increases, while oxygen and hydrogen decreases with temperature. The high heating values (HHV) increase, and the energy efficiency decreases with temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the fractional distillation on bench scale of four organic liquid products (OLPs) obtained by thermal-catalytic cracking of crude palm oil using 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% (w/w) sodium carbonate as the catalyst. The main objective of this work was to obtain biofuels similar to fuels derived from petroleum such as jet fuel and diesel fuel. Thus, the fractionation experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure and in two distillation temperature ranges, 160–245 °C and 245–340 °C, obtaining two distilled fractions denominated green jet fuel and green diesel, respectively. The distilled fractions (biofuels) have been physical-chemical characterized by Officials AOCS and ASTM Methods regarding specific gravity at 20 °C, kinematic viscosity at 40 °C, corrosiveness to copper, acid value, saponification value, refractive index, and distillation curve. The chemical composition of distilled fractions has been determined by GC–MS. The results of the fractionation of the OLPs show that sodium carbonate is an excellent catalyst regarding yield and selectivity for the production, firstly of green diesel and secondly of green jet fuel. Most physical-chemical properties of green jet fuel and green diesel fractions are within limits established by ANP No. 37 for conventional jet fuel [aviation kerosene (QAV-1/JET A-1)] and ANP No. 65 for commercial diesel (diesel S10), respectively. The experimental distillation curve of the green jet and green diesel fractions are similar to the standard distillation curve of aviation kerosene and diesel S10, respectively. Results from GC–MS analysis revealed that the size of the hydrocarbon chains constituting the green jet fuel (C 10 -C 15 ) and green diesel (C 14 -C 17 ) fractions obtained in the present study are in agreement with the length of the chains of hydrocarbons established for aviation kerosene and diesel S10, respectively. In parallel, the increase of catalyst in the thermal-catalytic cracking process improved the yield, selectivity, physical-chemical properties and chemical composition of both biofuels. Therefore, the results presented in this paper indicate that green jet fuel and green diesel fractions can be used as a partial or total substitute for aviation kerosene and diesel S10, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the influence of catalyst content on the physical–chemical properties, yield, and chemical composition of organic liquid products (OLP) obtained by thermal catalytic cracking of palm oil (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) was studied at a pilot scale. The experiments were carried out in a reactor of 143 L, running in batch mode at 450 °C and 1 atm, using 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% (w/w) Na 2 CO 3 as the catalyst. Physical–chemical characterization of OLP was conducted for acid value, saponification value, specific gravity, refractive index, kinematic viscosity, copper strip corrosion, and flash point. The chemical composition of OLP was determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). As the catalyst content increased, the kinematic viscosity of OLP decreased from 6.59 to 3.63 mm 2 s −1 and the acid value from 51.56 to 1.26 mg KOH/g. The GC–MS analysis showed that OLP comprise hydrocarbons (normal paraffin, olefin, and naphthenic) and oxygenated compounds (carboxylic acids, alcohols, ketones, and esters), with a high dependency on the catalyst level. As the catalyst content increased, the concentration of hydrocarbons increased, whereas the concentration of oxygenates decreased. The optimal sodium carbonate catalyst level was found to be 15% (w/w). This gave the highest rate of conversion into biofuel, of which around 60% was OLP, and produced biofuels with the lowest acid values. The physical–chemical properties were within the limits fixed by ANP No. 65 (Diesel S10 specification) due to their high hydrocarbon content (92.84%) and low oxygenate content (7.16%). The hydrocarbons produced had characteristics similar to those of petroleum diesel, offering the potential to replace petroleum fuels without requiring deacidification or deoxygenation pretreatment. [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]