Pyrolysis of residual palm oil in spent bleaching clay by modified tubular furnace and analysis of the products by GC–MS

In this study, spent bleaching clay containing 26.6 wt.% of residual palm oil was pyrolyzed using a tubular furnace. Carboxylic acids ranging from C9–C18 and alkanes ranging from C16–C44 were the major classes of compounds found in the pyrolytic products analyzed using GC–MS. Significant amounts of monoaromatic compounds, alkenes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, nitrogenated compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were found in the bio-oil produced in this study. The bio-oil resulting from the pyrolysis process gave n-hexadecanoic acid as the major compound. Decomposition temperature of the adsorbed oil determined using TGA was found to be in the range of 573–683 K. Topographical and elemental analyses of the clay was done using SEM–EDX. The functional groups were determined using FTIR.