"Theoretical and practical aspects for thermal treatment of waste vegetable oils "

Abstract

"The study of pyrolysis of vegetable oils in the laboratory extends over a period of almost a century, its main purpose being to observe the behavior of vegetable oils during thermal decomposition. In the 1940s, the nature of pyrolysis products (hydrocarbons) was discovered, and the liquid yields reaching up to 80%, and even got industrial exploitation, thus producing form tung oil the fuel for vehicles, under the conditions of the fuel crisis. This review presents an overview of the present status of thermochemical and thermocatalytic processes for the production of olefins and liquid products from waste vegetable oils, used in chemical and petrochemical industry. The variety of techniques, operating conditions, type of catalysts and reaction mechanisms will be analysed. During the process a lot of changes occurs in the molecular structures of composition considered as important indicators of the quality of the biofuels produced. These considerations will be used to give a synopsis of the thermochemical processes of different feedstocks. The properties of the products derived from waste vegetable oils are compared with petroleum based fuels as the benchmark. "