The production of diesel-like fuel from catalytic pyrolysis of soybean oil

The pyrolysis of soybean oil was studied in a continuous fixed bed reactor. The effect of reaction temperature (400-550°C) and feed rate (0.21-1.04 g·min
^-1
) were studied over the yield of the liquid condensates. The maximum yield (76.0%) of liquid condensate was obtained at 450°C pyrolysis temperature and 0.62 g·min
^-1
feeding rate. The catalytic pyrolysis experiments were studied over several oxides and zeolite catalysts. The calcium oxide presented a good catalytic result. The acid value decreased from 83.6 mg KOH·g
^-1
to 8 mg KOH·g
^-1
when in the presence of excess calcium oxide, and an attractive yield (41.1%) of diesel-like fuel was obtained. The compositions of the products were analyzed by gas chromatograph and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Some of the fuel properties such as density, viscosity and heat value were also studied. The results showed the diesel-like fuel produced with catalytic pyrolysis of soybean oil had higher qualities and might serve as a substitution of the fossil fuel.