Microwave-assisted and carbonaceous catalytic pyrolysis of crude glycerol from biodiesel waste for energy production

Biodiesel proliferation as a sustainable fuel has led to a glut of crude glycerol as co-product. This scenario made a previously lucrative co-product in the food and pharmaceutical sectors into a bioresource waste. The present study investigates the utilisation of a microwave-assisted pyrolysis technique to convert crude glycerol from biodiesel waste into usable bioenergy source. Operating conditions ranged from a temperature of 300-800 °C at carrier gas flow rates of 100-2000 mL/min, with the effects of carbonaceous catalyst on the selectivity of reaction pathway being investigated. Within the aforementioned conditions, the proportion of products phases is mainly dependent on the residence time inside the quartz reactor, followed by the reaction temperature. This is due to the combined factors of the reaction sequence and provision of activation energy to change product phases. The third factor of carbonaceous catalyst shows a predisposition towards hydrogen gas selectivity, leading to a lower overall gaseous product mass when factoring in products from all phases. An analysis of the energy content revealed that overall energy profit increases with decreasing temperature and increasing residence time. This concurs with solid energy content increasing in the same conditions, while it increases for liquid and gaseous products with decreasing temperature and flow rate, respectively. The conversion of waste into portable and energy profit positive products through pyrolysis makes crude glycerol a potential candidate for bioenergy production of bio-oil and syngas.