Thermo-chemical conversion of mango seed kernel and shell to value added products

Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the popular fruits in India and many other tropical countries also. Mango seed weight is 30 - 45% of the total fruit weight which completely goes off as waste. In this study, Mango seed kernel (MSK) and Mango seed shell (MSS) were selected as a feed for pyrolysis for the production of bio-chemicals. Conventional pyrolysis of MSK and MSS was carried out in the range between 673 to 873 K temperatures at a heating rate of 25 K min(-1). The optimum temperature for maximum yield of pyrolytic liquid was 823 K and 848 K for MSK and MSS with the corresponding yield of pyrolytic liquid of about 32.37% and 52.57% respectively. The composition analysis of MSK and MSS pyrolytic liquid revealed the presence of various valuable chemicals. It was noticed that MSS pyrolytic liquid contains about 27.63% n-allose, which is a rare sugar, whereas MSK contains 13.27% of levoglucosan along with furfural, furan, alcohol, aldehyde, benzene and various alkanes. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.