LIQUEFACTION OF CELLULOSIC WASTES .4. INFLUENCE OF INORGANIC CATALYSTS AND CARRIER OILS

Liquefaction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) has been done in an atmos phere of hydrogen gas at 320 degrees C and 27.2 arm, using various cat alysts including boric acid, nickel hydroxide and calcium hydroxide. I t was found that boric acid gave the highest yield of pyrolytic oil de rived from solid refuse. Hydrocarbon constituents of the oil mixtures, produced by liquefaction of cellulosic wastes slurried in a fuel oil and using different catalysts, were investigated by means of gas chrom atography. From the results obtained, it was suggested that boric acid promotes the catalytic activity of transition metals present in the p yrolytic char, which also upgrades the liquid products via hydrocracki ng and hydrotreating of the oil mixture Basic catalysts, nickel hydrox ide and calcium hydroxide, produced liquid hydrocarbons observed mainl y in the range of C-11 - C-16 via hydrogenation of cellulosic matter p resent in MSW. The produced oil mixtures were characterized through di fferent analytical parameters including API gravity, total acid number (TAN) and calorific value. It was found that the oil mixture, obtaine d using boric acid, has higher values than those produced using basic catalysts. In this investigation, two petroleum distillates, namely ga s oil and fuel oil, were used as carrier media of solid refuse. Fuel o il seemed to be a more preferable carrier medium to produce higher gra de liquid hydrocarbons having a lower content of aromatic compounds as evidenced by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.