Chemical composition of liquid fuel produced by co-pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse and sludge palm oil using zeolite-Y as catalyst

Abstract

In this investigation, co-pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse and sludge palm oil for production of liquid fuel was investigated. A series of pyrolysis experiments was conducted using zeolite-Y synthesized from rice husk silica and aluminum metal through sol-gel route and calcined at different temperatures as catalyst. The pyrolysis experiments were conducted at fixed temperature of 350oC, and the liquid fuels produced were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique for component identification. The results obtained indicate that the main component of the liquid fuels is hydrocarbon, with the highest content of 80% was produced with the use of catalyst calcined at 700 oC. Production of liquid fuels with high hydrocarbon content and practically contain no acids demonstrated that catalyst zeolite-Y synthesized exhibited appreciable selectivity toward formation of hydrocarbons, and simultaneously prevent the formation of acids.