Thermal Treatment of Rapeseed Oil

The thermal decomposition of rapeseed oil lowered cetane value of the product through decarboxylation and decarbonylation. In this study the thermal decomposition in rapeseed oil was estimated with different temperatures (300 to 410oC) with or without hydrogen at 1 bar partial pressure. Initially, the reactor is loaded with glass pellets and then the rapeseed oil was fed into the reactor. At hydrothermal condition of 300 to 410oC, the formation of oxygenate groups (i.e. esters, acids and aldehydes) were 15 to 30%, while the rest contained thermally cracked hydrocarbons with excluded un-reacted feed. In residue oil, cyclic group formation was observed. The formation of acidic and aldehyde resulted in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in outlet gases. The hydroprocess of higher temperatures leaded higher cracking and cyclic groups with more dense and viscous residue oil