Pyrolysis of residual palm oil in spent bleaching clay by modified tubular furnace and analysis of the products by GC-MS

In this study, spent bleaching clay containing 26.6 wt.% of residual palm oil was pyrolyzed using a tubular furnace. Carboxylic acids ranging from C-9-C-18 and alkanes ranging from C-16-C-44 were the major classes of compounds found in the pyrolytic products analyzed using GC-MS. Significant amounts of monoaromatic compounds, alkenes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, nitrogenated compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were found in the bio-oil produced in this study. The bio-oil resulting from the pyrolysis process gave n-hexadecanoic acid as the major compound. Decomposition temperature of the adsorbed oil determined using TGA was found to be in the range of 573-683 K. Topographical and elemental analyses of the clay was done using SEM-EDX. The functional groups were determined using FTIR. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.