Hydrocarbon Production from Catalytic Pyrolysis-GC/MS of Sacha Inchi Residues Using SBA-15 Derived from Coal Fly Ash

Abstract

In this work, Sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) residues were used as biomass feedstocks in catalytic upgrading pyrolysis with SBA-15, which is a substance synthesized from coal fly ash (CFA), using alkali fusion, followed by hydrothermal treatment (SBA-15-FA). The catalytic activity of fly ash-derived SBA-15 was investigated through the fast pyrolysis of Sacha inchi residues for upgrading the pyrolysis vapors using the analytical pyrolysis-GC/MS (Py-GC/MS) technique. The pyrolysis temperature was set at 500 °C and held for 30 s while maintaining the Sacha inchi residues to catalyst ratios of 1:0, 1:1, 1:5, and 1:10. In addition, the SBA-15s synthesized from chemical reagent and commercial SBA-15 were evaluated for comparison. The non-catalytic fast pyrolysis of Sacha inchi (SI) mainly consisted of fatty acids (46%), including chiefly linoleic acid (C18:2). Other compounds present were hydrocarbon (26%) and nitrogen-containing compounds (8.7%), esters (9.0%), alcohols (6.4%), and furans (3.6%). The study results suggested that the SBA-15-FA showcased a high ability to improve aliphatic selectivity (mainly C5–C20) and was found to be almost 80% at the biomass to catalyst ratio of 1:5. Moreover, the increase in catalyst contents affected the enhancement of hydrocarbons yields and tended to promote the deoxygenation reaction. Interestingly, the catalytic performance of SBA-15 derived from fly ash could be compared to that of the commercial SBA-15 in terms of producing hydrocarbon compounds as well as reducing oxygenated compounds.

Synthesis of Coal-Fly-Ash-Based Ordered Mesoporous Materials and Their Adsorption Application

“…Unfortunately, when CFA was used as a raw material, typical recipes for the preparation of SBA-15 did not act effectively, which could be attributed to the low extraction efficiency of silicon species from CFA [ 11 ]. Consequently, costly silicon precursors (such as TEOS) should be added to improve the quantity of the product [ 12 , 13 ]. In addition, the strong acidic synthesis conditions make it is extremely difficult to directly incorporate metal atoms into the siliceous framework of SBA-15 because metals only exist in their aqueous cationic form rather than their corresponding oxo species [ 14 ].…”

Catalytic pyrolysis of coconut oil with Ni/SBA-15 for the production of bio jet fuel

“…Soongprasit and collaborators 19 used SBA-15 for the thermocatalytic pyrolysis of Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) and veried high catalyst selectivity for hydrocarbons in the gasoline and diesel range. Using the catalysts SBA-15 and ZSM-5, Vu and Arbruster 20 evaluated the pyrolysis of residual vegetable oil and observed yields greater than 50% in gasoline production.…”