Synthetic fuel production from by product of the sunflower oil industry via pyrolysis

Devolopping technology and industry requires more energy but as known that the energy resources in the world are very limited. Therefore, the energy nowadays is becoming more and more important. In the next century, primary energy resources, petroleum, natural gas and coal may exhaust so there are some plans on haw to meet energy needs. In this area, scientific investigations are carried out with increasing speed all over the world. Turkey is one of the energy-dependent country. We can not produce satisfactory amount of primary energy resources thus, we have started to import crude petroleum since 1961, coal since 1973 and natural gas since 1987. We should use energy resources in our country in the optimum way and search for new and renewable energy resources such as sun-energy, wind-energy, jeotermal, biomass and hydrolic energy. Bio mass is of more importance in our country. Turkey has a large of agri cultrual and animal biomass resources. Agricultural waste of our country is equal to 9.5 megaton petroleum which is the second biggest amount in OECD countries. The energy obtained from biomass energy resources is equal to 17.2 megaton petroleum in terms of 1984 statistics data. As a result, we should develope new suit able processes to produce biomass energy. The researches in the world are already being carried out to produce new and renewable energy from biomass.Especially, USA is thinking of producing the energy in 1 1-15 % from biomass in teh next century. Liquid and gas fuels have been produced from biomass by using pyrolysis process in the world. Biomass resources are generally agricultural, animal and industrial wastes Liquid product obtained from biomass is equal to petroleum. To obtain liquid product from biomass is more economic compared to its other usages. The lack of the sources of petroleum and the good quality solid fossil fuels in Turkey have prompted us to seek other renewable sources of liquid hydrocarbons. By products and wastes of food industry can be considered as biomass and alternative renewable source for hydrocarbon production. In this work, a method to obtain liquid fuels from sunflower's oil cake as a new and renewable energy source by retording in a Heinze retord at various condition was demonstrated. The liquid products were characterized by several spectroscopic and chromatographic methols and compared with the currently utilized transport fossil fuels. In this study, the investigations of sunflower's oil cake were carried out in two steps. In the first step, humidity, volatile material, total ash, ash undissolved in HCI, crude protein, crude cellulose amounts, elemental analysis and calorific value were of the sample were determined. In the second step, pyrolysis experiments were carried out under normal pyrolysis atmosphere and sweeping gas (nitrogen) atmosphere. The experimental set up used in this study is a Heinze type retort. Retort was inserted in a special furnace. Pyrolysis device was connected to related places. The voltage was adjusted to the required value. It was operated with 30 gr. sample for sunflower's oil cake. In all the experimental runs the retort was started at room temperature. The system was left for 30 min. at the pyrolysis temperature and a 7 °C/min, 30 °C/min heating rates were used for experiments. The flow rate of gas being produced and nitrogen flow rate were measured at some intervals during this process. The study conducted under normal pyrolysis atmosphere, was under taken with 0.425- 1.8mm plarticle size at 300,400,450,520,700 and 900 °C pyrolysis temperatures employing low heating rate of 7 °C/min and high heating rate of 30 °C/min in order to investigate the effect of pyrolysis temperature on pyrolysis yields. Of the experiments carried out between 300-900 °C, the one at 400-450 °C pyrolysis temparature and particularly with low heating rate of 7 °C /min showed 38 % tar yield with high heating rate 30 °C/min, tar yield was found 34-35 % at all pyrolysis temperatures However, the gas yield of 16-17 % obtained at low heating rate 7 °C/min increased to the level of 24- 25 %. As aresult, it was shown that the pyrolysis process of sunflower's oil cake was almost complated at 400-450 °C and tar yield was obtained in the highest level with low heating rate. By using these results, in order to establish the effect of raw material particle size on normal atmosphere pyrolysis, four different particle groups of 0.425Keyword: Ayçiçek yağı = Sunflower oil ; Piroliz = Pyrolysis ; Sentetik yakıtlar = Synthetic fuels ; Yağ endüstrisi = Oil industry