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This work aims to investigate systematically the catalytic cracking of residual fat, oils, and grease (FOG) from grease traps to produce heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fuels. The experiments were carried out in batch mode at 450 °C and 1.0 atm, with 5, 10, and 15% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 using a laboratory scale borosilicate-glass reactor of 143 ml, and with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 in a pilot scale stirred tank slurry reactor of 143 l. The organic liquid products (OLP) were physical chemistry analyzed for acid and saponification values, density, kinematic viscosity, refractive index, flash point, and copper strip corrosion. FT-IR provided the qualitative chemical composition of OLP and heavy diesel-like fraction. The chemical compositions of OLP and heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fuel determined by RMN and GC–MS. The laboratory experimental data showed an OLP yield ranging from 60.50 to 65.40% (wt.), a coke yield ranging between 7.50 and 9.80% (wt.), and a gas yield ranging from 16.30 to 22.06% (wt.), while pilot scale data showed an OLP yield of 66.57% (wt.), a coke yield of 9.73% (wt.), and a gas yield of 18.24% (wt.). In addition, the yield of OLP obtained in laboratory scale shows a slight increase with Na 2 CO 3 content, while the density, kinematic viscosity, acid value, and saponification value decreases in an exponential fashion with Na 2 CO 3 content. The OLP acid values varied from 19.08 to 71.50 mg KOH/g, the density between 0.827 and 0.867 g/cm 3 , and the kinematic viscosity from 3.90 to 6.35 mm 2 s −1 for laboratory data, while in pilot scale, the OLP acid value was 14.97 mg KOH/g, density of 0.820 g/cm 3 , and the kinematic viscosity of 3.485 mm 2 s −1 . The yield of heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fraction average 19.35% (wt.) with an acid value of 7.27 mg KOH/g, density of 0.812 g/cm 3 , and kinematic viscosity of 3.51 mm 2 s −1 . FT-IR, RMN, and GC–MS analysis of OLP and heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fraction confirms the presence of functional groups characteristic of hydrocarbons (alkenes, alkanes, ring-containing alkenes, and ring-containing alkanes, cycloalkenes, cycloalkanes, and aromatics) and oxygenates (carboxylic acids, ketones, fatty alcohols, and dienes). The GC–MS analysis of OLP and heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon 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 heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fuel is composed by 69.27% (area) hydrocarbons (32.04% alkenes, 25.62% alkanes, 3.93% ring-containing alkenes, 0.98% ring-containing alkanes, 1.35% cycloalkanes, 4.88% cycloalkanes, and 0.47% aromatics) and 31.75% (area) oxygenates (4.80% carboxylic acids, 4.85% ketones, and 21.08% fatty alcohols). The physical-chemistry properties and chemical composition of heavy diesel-like hydrocarbon fuel obtained by catalytic cracking of residual fat, oils, and grease (FOG) from grease traps with 10% (wt.) Na 2 CO 3 shows the process is technically feasible. [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]