PYROLYSIS OF EUPHORBIA-COPIAPINA CONSTITUENTS WITH ZEOLITIC CATALYSTS

Euphorbia copiapina, a Chilean species growing in arid areas is a prom ising source of botanochemicals compounds. To assess the suitability o f obtaining fuels, their extract was pyrolyzed catalytically. Zeolitic catalysts were chosen because they have shown to be more active and s hape selective than conventional catalysts in the conversion of heavy hydrocarbons and also of methanol to fuels. Series of zeolites, faujas ite-type, with different acidity and containing metals suitable for cr acking, isomerization, dehydration and carbonyl reduction processes we re synthesized and characterized. CH2Cl2 extracts from Euphorbia copia pina stem and leaves were pyrolyzed with the synthesized catalysts and ZSM-5, the zeolitic Mobil's catalyst, under different experimental co nditions. Conversion degree and quality of the products were estimated by means of thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and combustion heat. Regarding the percentage of conversion and the heat of combustion of the pyrolytic products, under the conditions of this study, the catalysts that seemed to direct more efficiently t he pyrolysis of the extracts of hydrocarbon producing plants to mixtur es with interest as fuels or industrial chemicals, besides ZSM-5, were Mo(2)NaY and Co(1)Mo(0.5)NaY.