Pyrolytic conversion of palm oil into biohydrocarbon using activated Lampung natural zeolite as catalyst and aluminum granules as heat exchanger

Abstract This research was undertaken to study pyrolysis of palm oil using of thermally activated Lampung natural zeolite (LNZ) as catalyst and aluminum granules as heat exchanger. Natural zeolite was activated by calcination at different temperatures of 600, 700, and 800 °C for 8 hours. The activated zeolites were then characterized using XRD and SEM and then used as catalyst together with aluminum granules as heat exchanger. A series of experiments were conducted using 200 mL oil, 5 g catalyst, and 5 g heat exchanger, and the performance of the method was evaluated based on the time required for the first flow of Bio Crude Oil (BCO), the yield, and chemical composition of the BCO. The experimental results demonstrated that the use of heat exchanger led to a significant increase in the pyrolysis rate, as indicated by the shortening of the time for the first flow of BCO. It was found that without heat exchanger, 19 minutes was required for the first flow of the BCO, and it was reduced to 12 minutes (36.84 % time reduction) with the use of heat exchanger. Improvement was also achieved in terms of BCO yields, with increases from 43.5 % without heat exchanger to 53.5 % with heat exchanger. In terms of chemical components of the BCO samples, no significant difference was observed, in which hydrocarbons (biohydrocarbons), acids, alcohols, ketones, and esters are the five main components composing the samples. In all BCO samples produced with the use of activated zeolite, biohydrocarbons exist as the main component, with the highest content (85.40 %) was produced from the experiment with the use of LNZ calcined at 800 °C as catalyst. The existence of biohydrocarbons as the main components of the BCO obtained highlights the promising potential of activated LNZ as catalyst for biohydrocarbons production and significant effect of calcination temperature. The advantages of heat exchanger, in terms of acceleration of pyrolysis and BCO yield, are also worth noting.