A Study on Pyrolysis of Canada Thistle (Cirsium Arvense) With Titania Based Catalysts for Bio-Fuel Production

Abstract

The catalytic pyrolysis of Cirsium arvense was performed with titania supported catalysts under the operating conditions of 500 degrees C, 40 degrees C/min heating rate, 100 mL/min N-2 flow rate in a fixed bed reactor for biofuel production. The effect of catalysts on product yields was investigated. The amount of pyrolysis products (bio-char, bio-oil, gas) and the composition of the produced bio-oils were determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and elemental analysis (EA) techniques. Thistle bio-oils had lower O/C and H/C molar ratios compared to feedstock. The highest bio-char and bio-oil yields of 29.32 wt% and 36.71 wt% were obtained in the presence of Ce/TiO2 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts respectively. GC-MS identified 97 different compounds in the bio-oils obtained from thistle pyrolysis. H-1 NMR analysis showed that the bio-oils contained similar to 55-77% aliphatic and similar to 6-19% aromatic structural units. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.