Production of Lighter Fuels from Spent Lubricating Oil via Pyrolysis over Barium-Substituted Spinel Ferrite

• Published in: Energy & fuels Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 4781 - 4789
• Main Authors: Ahmad, Imtiaz, Khan, Razia, Ishaq, Mohammad, Khan, Hizbullah, Ismail, Mohammad, Gul, Kashif, Ahmad, Waqas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 16-06-2016
• ISSN: 0887-0624; 1520-5029
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.6b00796

The present work addresses the catalytic conversion of spent lubricating oil (SLO) into reusable diesel-like product over laboratory-prepared barium ferrite (abbreviated as BF, formula BaFe2O4) using pyrolytic distillation. Soot, carbon, water, and other detrital contaminants were removed from SLO by prior treatment using pre-baked clay as adsorbent. The BF was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray scattering, X-ray diffractometry, and surface area analysis and used in the concentration range of 1–5 wt%. The influence of BF concentration on overall conversion (OC) and yields of liquid fraction (LF), gas (G), and solid residue (SR) was studied in comparison with the thermal uncatalyzed run. A catalyst loading of 5 wt% was found to be optimum, giving yields of 97.67 wt% OC, 92.91 wt% LF, 2.33 wt% G, and 4.76 wt% SR. Fourier transform infrared and gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric analyses showed the preponderance of aliphatic (79.38%) and olefinic (11.18%) hydrocarbons in the derived LF. The fuel properties of the derived fraction were also investigated using ASTM/IP standard methods. The results showed that a 5 wt% concentration of BF possessed high activity and selectivity toward formation of diesel-range hydrocarbons in appreciable yields.