Bio-oil production from rapid pyrolysis of cottonseed cake:: product yields and compositions

Fixed-bed fast pyrolysis experiments have been conducted on a sample of cottonseed cake to determine the effects of pyrolysis temperature, heating rate and sweep gas flow rate on pyrolysis yields and chemical compositions of the product oil. The liquid products and the subtractions of pentane soluble part were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, H-1-NMR spectroscopy and pentane subfraction was analysed by gas chromatography. The maximum oil yield of 34.8% was obtained at final temperature of 550 degrees C with a heating rate of 700 degrees C min(-1) and nitrogen flow rate of 100 cm(3) min(-1). Chromatographic and spectroscopic studies on bio-oil have shown that the oils obtained from cottonseed cake can be used as a renewable fuel and chemical feedstock. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.