Catalytic Cracking of Euphorbia Species: Analysis of the Naphtha Fractions.

The development of alternate sources of energy, particularly the use of plants as renewable sources for fuel, has received much attention recently. The potential of two indigenous arid land petrocrops,E. royleanaandE. neriifolia, as a source of hydrocarbon fuels was explored. Biocrudes extracted from these plant species were catalytically upgraded to liquid fuels using fluidized catalytic cracking. Naphtha fractions obtained by cracking of biocrudes were analyzed to give the detailed and group-wise distribution of paraffinic, isoparaffinic, oleofinic, naphthenic, and aromatic components. These naphtha fractions are similar in composition to the naphtha obtained from petroleum crudes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]