Pyrolysis of Puspa Wood Sawdust and Sugarcane Bagasse into Biochar

Puspa wood sawdust and sugarcane bagasse are abundantly available but have low carbon content and nutrients. The carbon content and nutrients could be increased by converting biomass into biochar through pyrolysis. The independent variables of pyrolysis were essential to investigate because those inherently influence biochar quality. In this study, the effect of pyrolysis temperature (300, 350, 400, 450, and 500 ˚C) and time (30, 60, 90 mins) on the biochar characteristic such as pH, yield, and proximate compositions were determined. The total nitrogen, P2O5, and K2O content at optimum condition biochar were also investigated. The data analysis showed that the pyrolysis temperature and time increment positively correlated to the pH, ash content, and carbon content. At the same time, the yield and volatile matter were vice versa. Both biochar's optimum pyrolysis temperature and time were achieved at 500 and 90 minutes. The carbon content and nutrient of biochar were also increased compared to the biomass. The pyrolysis method has enhanced biomass quality, and the biochar may be used as a growing media and soil amendment. It can be concluded that the sugarcane bagasse biochar was more likely favorable than puspa wood sawdust biochar due to its higher fixed carbon and nutrient conten

Kinetic Parameters Investigation for The Esterification of Free Fatty Acid from Coconut Oil Mill Waste using Montmorillonite-Sulfonated Carbon from Glucose Composite Catalyst

Coconut oil mill waste (CMW) contained high free fatty acid (FFA) content which potentially could be converted into a value-added product such as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). In this study, a montmorillonite-sulfonated carbon catalyst was used to evaluate the kinetic parameter of FFA conversion from CMW into FAME. The characterization of FTIR and SEM-EDX confirmed that the -SO3H groups were successfully incorporated into montmorillonite- carbon catalyst. The highest catalyst acidity (9.4 mmol/g) was achieved by a ratio of montmorillonite to sulfonated carbon of 1:3 % w/w. The kinetic study using montmorillonite-sulfonated carbon 1:3 % w/w showed that the reaction temperature and molar ratio of methanol to FFA (% v/v) were positively correlated to the reaction rate. The highest rate constant of esterification towards the product (k1), reactant (k2), and equilibrium were 0.1187, 0.0595, and 1.995, achieved by a temperature of 80 ˚C, respectively. The Arrhenius constant and activation energy towards the product were 3.3085×106 and 50.3 J/mole, respectively. The reaction temperature was positively correlated to the equilibrium constant, which indicated that the reaction was endothermic. The kinetic model validation revealed that the predicted value from the model was adequately in accordance with the experimental value, as indicated by a high coefficient of determination

Conversion of crude palm oil to biofuels via catalytic hydrocracking over NiN-supported natural bentonite

Nickel nitride supported on natural bentonite was prepared and tested for hydrocracking Crude Palm Oil (CPO). The catalyst was prepared using the wet impregnation method and various nickel nitride loading. Subsequently, the nickel nitrate-bentonite was calcined and nitrided under H2 steam. The surface acidity of as-synthesized NiN-bentonite was evaluated using the gravimetric pyridine gas. Meanwhile, the physiochemical features of the catalyst were assessed using XRD, FT-IR and SEM-EDX. The results showed that the NiN species was finely dispersed without affecting the bentonite's structure. Furthermore, the co-existence of Ni and N species on EDX analysis suggested the NiN was successfully supported onto the bentonite, while the surface acidity features of raw bentonite were increased to 1.713 mmol pyridine/g at 8 mEq/g of nickel nitride loading. The catalytic activity towards the CPO hydrocracking demonstrated that the surface acidity features affect the CPO conversion, with the highest conversion achieved (84.21%) using NiN-bentonite 8 mEq/g loading. At all nickel nitride loading, the NiN-bentonite could generate up to 81.98–83.47% of bio-kerosene fraction, followed by the bio-gasoline ranging from 13.12–13.9%, and fuel oil ranging from 2.89–4.57%

Lump Kinetic Method in Solving Kinetic Problems and Cracking Reaction Mechanism: A Review

The development of an appropriate kinetic model for cracking reactions is essential for simulation and process optimization. These results are to be potentially used for proper reactor design. The complexities of oil gas inlet combinations have led to an increase in the challenges while defining and depicting kinetics on an intrinsic scale. Hence, complicated chemical reaction circumstances are characterized by combining many possible pathways into more modest groups of comparable chemical substances. In addition, cracking kinetic demonstrations is frequently carried out in lumped forms. This is due to the complex nature of the feedstock, which is known to contain enormous hydrocarbon associated with series and parallel reaction networks. The representation of complicated compounds by consolidating a large chemical component into small amounts of apparent components has been generally utilized in industry to generate a straightforward approach to stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and kinetics. Considering the importance of this lumped method, this study focused on studying the development of a kinetic lump approach to solve kinetic problems and cracking mechanisms

Hydrocracking optimization of palm oil to bio-gasoline and bio-aviation fuels using molybdenum nitride-bentonite catalyst

In this study, molybdenum nitride-bentonite was successfully employed for the reaction of hydrocracking of palm oil to produce a bio-gasoline and bio-aviation fuel. The prepared catalyst was characterized using XRD, FT-IR, and SEM-EDX. The acidity of the catalyst was determined using the pyridine gravimetric method. The result showed that the acidity of bentonite was increased after modification using molybdenum nitride. The hydrocracking study showed that the highest conversion and product fraction of bio-gasoline and bio-aviation fuel were exhibited by molybdenum nitride-bentonite 8 mEq g−1. The catalyst was later used to optimize the hydrocracking process using RSM-CCD. The effects of the process variables such as temperature, contact time, and catalyst to feed ratio, on the response variables, such as conversion, oil, gas, and coke yield, were investigated. The analysis of variance showed that the proposed quadratic model was statistically significant with adequate precision to estimate the responses. The optimum conditions in the hydrocracking process were achieved at a temperature of 731.94 K, contact time of 0.12 h, and a catalyst to feed ratio of 0.12 w/v with a conversion of 78.33%, an oil yield of 50.32%, gas yield of 44.00% and coke yield of 5.73%. The RSM-CCD was demonstrated as a suitable method for estimating the hydrocracking process of palm oil using a MoN-bentonite catalyst due to its closeness to the optimal value of the expected yield. This study provided a potential catalyst of based on bentonite modified using molybdenum nitride for the hydrocracking of palm oil

Facile Fabrication of SiO2/Zr Assisted with EDTA Complexed-Impregnation and Templated Methods for Crude Palm Oil to Biofuels Conversion via Catalytic Hydrocracking

Zr-containing SiO2 and their parent catalysts were fabricated with different methods using EDTA chelation and template-assist. The activity of the catalysts was explored in crude palm oil (CPO) hydrocracking, conducted under a continuous system micro-cylindrical reactor. The conversion features and the selectivity towards biofuel products were also examined. The physicochemical of catalysts, such as structure phase, functional groups, surface morphologies, acidity features, and particle size, were investigated. The study showed that the template method promoted the crystalline porous catalysts, whereas the chelate method initiated the non-porous structure. The catalysts’ acidity features of SiO2 and SiO2/Zr were affected by the preparation, which revealed that the EDTA chelate-assisted method provided higher acidity features compared with the template method. The CPO hydrocracking study showed that the SiO2/Zr-CEDTA provided the highest catalytic activity towards the hydrocracking process, with 87.37% of conversion attained with 66.29%.wt of liquid product. This catalyst exhibited selectivity towards bio-jet (36.88%), bio-diesel (31.43%), and bio-gasoline (26.80%). The reusability study revealed that the SiO2/Zr-CEDTA had better stability towards CPO conversion compared with SiO2/Zr-CEDTA, with a low decrease in catalyst performance at three consecutive runs

Facile Fabrication of SiO₂/Zr Assisted with EDTA Complexed-Impregnation and Templated Methods for Crude Palm Oil to Biofuels Conversion via Catalytic Hydrocracking

Zr-containing SiO2 and their parent catalysts were fabricated with different methods using EDTA chelation and template-assist. The activity of the catalysts was explored in crude palm oil (CPO) hydrocracking, conducted under a continuous system micro-cylindrical reactor. The conversion features and the selectivity towards biofuel products were also examined. The physicochemical of catalysts, such as structure phase, functional groups, surface morphologies, acidity features, and particle size, were investigated. The study showed that the template method promoted the crystalline porous catalysts, whereas the chelate method initiated the non-porous structure. The catalysts’ acidity features of SiO2 and SiO2/Zr were affected by the preparation, which revealed that the EDTA chelate-assisted method provided higher acidity features compared with the template method. The CPO hydrocracking study showed that the SiO2/Zr-CEDTA provided the highest catalytic activity towards the hydrocracking process, with 87.37% of conversion attained with 66.29%.wt of liquid product. This catalyst exhibited selectivity towards bio-jet (36.88%), bio-diesel (31.43%), and bio-gasoline (26.80%). The reusability study revealed that the SiO2/Zr-CEDTA had better stability towards CPO conversion compared with SiO2/Zr-CEDTA, with a low decrease in catalyst performance at three consecutive runs