ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Pyrolytic and catalytic conversion of rape oil into aromatic and aliphatic fractions in a fixed bed reactor on Al₂O₃ and Al₂O₃/B₂O₃ catalysts

Piotr Kirszensztejn, Robert Przekop, Agnieszka Tolińska, and Ewa Maćkowska

Faculty of Chemistry, A. Mickiewicz University, Grunwaldzka 6, 60-780 Poznań, Poland

E-mail: kirszen@amu.edu.pl

Received: 17 April 2008  Revised: 16 October 2008  Accepted: 20 October 2008

Abstract: In the, at present, unstable fuel market, much attention is devoted to alternative technologies for fuel production and development of alternative products of the petrochemical industry. One of the prospective sources of fuel and alternative petrochemical products is biomass, and the use of oil plants is one of the possibilities. This paper reports on a possible conversion of rapeseed oil produced in Poland into intermediate hydrocarbon fractions by pyrolysis combined with parallel catalytic conversion. The products were analysed by gas chromatography coupled with a mass detector. The process was performed in a fixed-bed reactor and was monitored by FTIR and ¹H NMR. Depending on the catalysts applied, the products contained: water, carbon oxides, hydrogen, aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbons accompanied by some amount of C2-C5 hydrocarbons formed during the cracking process.

Keywords: alternative energy sources - biomass cracking - pyrolysis - plant oil

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-008-0104-1

Chemical Papers 63 (2) 226–232 (2009)