Catalytic pyrolysis of corncob using metal supported SBA-15

Abstract

In this study, prepared catalysts were divided into three groups consisting of microporous material (beta zeolite), mesoporous materials (SBA-15 and Al-SBA-15) and metal (Ni and Pd) loading on supported SBA-15 and beta zeolite. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, nitrogen sorption analysis, solid state 27Al-nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. All catalysts were applied for thermal and catalytic pyrolysis processes of agricultural waste as corncob in a stainless steel tube reactor under nitrogen atmosphere. Factors affected to reaction such as reaction temperature, catalytic type and amount of catalyst were studied. The pyrolysis temperature was the important parameter affected to the decomposition of biomass at low temperature as 300°C and short time were applied to be cracked corncob over various catalysts. The gas products were methane, the hydrocarbon having boiling point higher than n-pentane (C5+) and CO2 whereas the light hydrocarbon gases having 2-4 carbon atoms (C2-C4) were minor products. The distillated liquid products were divided into six functional groups including acid and alcohol groups, furan derivative group, phenolic compound group, light ketone group, light ester group and others. The Al-SBA-15(20) catalyst gave high light ester group such as 2-methyl-butyl propanoic acid ester and 2-methoxy phenyl acetate which most important used as intermediate products in sweet flavor and apple, banana aroma in the food industry.