Bio-oil production from pyrolysis and steam pyrolysis of soybean-cake: product yields and composition

The slow pyrolysis of soybean cake in a fixed-bed reactor was investigated under three different atmospheres: static, for determining the effects of pyrolysis temperature and particle size, nitrogen and steam. The liquid yield of 33.78% was attained at 550 °C pyrolysis temperature and 200 cm3/min sweeping gas flow rate with the soybean oil cake samples having 0.850<Dp<1.250 mm particle size. And the liquid yield reached a maximum value of 42.79% with a steam velocity of 1.3 cm/s. Column chromatography was used to characterize the liquid product, bio-oil. The aliphatic subfractions of the oils were then analyzed by GC/MS. FTIR and 1H-NMR spectra were used to determine structural analysis of pyrolysis oils and aromatic and polar subfractions. The H/C ratios and the structure analysis of the fractions obtained from the biocrudes show that the fractions are quite similar to currently utilized transport fuels.