Liquid Fuel Production by Zeolite-A Catalyzed Pyrolysis of Mixed Cassava Solid Waste and Rubber Seed Oil

In this investigation, a mixture of cassava solid waste and rubber seed oil was subjected to pyrolysis for liquid fuel production. A series of pyrolysis experiments was conducted with fixed composition of 50 g cassava solid waste and 150 mL rubber seed oil. The experiments were conducted using zeolite-A synthesized from rice husk silica and aluminum metal through sol-gel route and subsequently calcined at different temperatures as catalyst. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of calcination temperatures of the catalyst on the chemical composition of the liquid fuel obtained. The pyrolysis experiment was commenced at room temperature and allowed to reach peak temperature of 350°C, and the composition of liquid fuel produced was analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. The results of GC-MS analyses reveal that liquid fuels composed of a series of organic compounds, broadly belong to hydrocarbon, alcohol, ester, ketone, aldehyde, and acid. The results also display significant effect of the calcination temperatures of the catalyst on the composition of the liquid. For hydrocarbon contents in particular, the fuel with the highest hydrocarbon content of 90% was obtained using the catalyst calcined at 800°C, suggesting that the use of the particular catalyst is the optimum condition. Based on the hydrocarbon content of the liquid fuels, it is concluded that the zeolites exhibited considerably high ability to enhance the formation of hydrocarbon and simultaneously suppress the formation of oxygenated compounds.