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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]

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 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]