Thermal cracking of canola oil in a continuously operating pilot plant.

Thermal cracking of canola oil was investigated in a continuously operating pilot plant. The influence of different cracking temperatures (450 °C to 580 °C) on the product was observed with a final objective of maximizing LCO (light cycle oil). LCO can be used as diesel blend if a required quality is achieved. The pilot plant was constructed as a reaction/regeneration system with an internal circulating fluidized bed design. All experiments were conducted with canola oil at a feed rate of 2.5 kg/h. Silica sand was used as bed material. A 6-lump model was used for product characterization. The composition of gas ( C 1 – C 4 ), gasoline (saturated hydrocarbons, olefins, aromatics) and LCO (aromatics) was analyzed. In addition, the oxygen content of the liquid products was determined at cracking temperatures of 450 °C and 580 °C. The experiments show that the product distribution is heavily dependent on the cracking temperature. With increasing cracking temperature gas, gasoline and carbon oxides increase, whereas LCO, residue and coke decrease. At a cracking temperature of 450 °C 8.6 wt% gas, 21.1 wt% gasoline, 47.5 wt% LCO, 15.8 wt% residue, 3.7 wt% coke and 3.3 wt% carbon oxides are formed. The liquid product contains high amounts of oxygenates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]