Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Production of biodiesel from Physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) extraction creates agricultural waste. In this study, utilization of this waste was investigated as a potential source of energy while reducing the costly management and control of this waste which may otherwise result in land and water pollutions. The objectives of this work were to investigate the effects of catalysts and pyrolysis conditions, such as reactor temperature, and residence time, on catalytic pyrolysis of Physic nut waste by using a drop tube reactor. Particle size of raw material and temperature of the reactor were varied from 0.425-1 mm. and 600-900ºC, respectively while nitrogen carrier gas flow was kept at 2 L/min. The catalytic effect on liquid yields was identified by comparison with non-catalytic (NC) pyrolysis and char-catalytic (CC) pyrolysis. The distribution of gas, liquid and char with noncatalytic (NC) and char-catalytic (CC) were 50.20, 15.07, 34.73 wt% and 61.21, 18.73, 20.07 wt%, respectively at 800ºC during 30 min of pyrolysis experiments. Condensed product was further analyzed using GC-MS to determine the chemical components of this complex product.