Fats and oils axe well established in food, surfactant and coatings applications. Historically, fats and oils were employed to provide lighting and warmth. Increasing production of fats and oils and in-cre~dn~ uncertainties regarding the reliability of petroleum resources make k desirable to reconsider thermochemical applications of fats and oils. Difficulties associated wkh the use of fats and oils for vehicular applications are discussed, and use in stationary diesel engines is suggested.Conventional kerosene space heaters axe designed to make use of the vaporization behavior of this fuel. Changes in heater design arc required to take into account the pyrolytic degradation of the fuel when fats and oils are used, and a traveling grate burner was designed for this purpose.Pyrolysis of fatty acids at temperatures exceeding 500 C yields a mixture of gaseous and liquid products. The gaseous products indude ethylene, but little propylene. The liquid product is primarily a mixture of substituted styrenes.Further development is needed for these thermochemical applications of fats and oils. Fuel and olefin markets present valuable cushions to keep the price of fats and oils from fluctuating as during the early 1980's, when soybean oil has varied from $0.15 per pound m $0.40 per pound. The triglycerides can provide a future source of feedstocks for petrochemicals, if petroleum prices and availabilities change dramatically. Most of the development work needed consists of down-to-earth large-scale experiments in semi-commercial or commercial equipment to determine the best methods of fuel storage, feeding and conditions for combustion and steam cracking.
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