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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]

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 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]