High Oil Yields from Euphorbia Rigida Via Hydropyrolysis

Abstract

Plants which grow in arid lands and are not a source of food offer an attractive renewable source for hyrocarbon production. It was demostrated previously that higher oil yields can be obtained from one such plant, Euphorbia Rigida which grows in many regions of Central Anatolia, by static retorting than by the traditional method of low temperature solvent extraction (18 cf. 10%,dry basis). In this investigation, the oil yield has been futher increased to about 45% (dry basis) by conducting hydropyrolysis in a well-swept fixed-bed reactor at a presure of 150 bar. Indeed, solid state 13C NMR has indicated that this is significantly higher than the hydrocarbon content of the initial plant and, therefore, it is proposed that some of the oil is generated by aromatisation of the cellulosic material present.