Chemical properties of biosilica and bio-oil derived from fast pyrolysis of Melosira varians

ROXANA PILONI; I. CLAUDIA DAGA; VERONICA BRUNETTI; E.LAURA MOYANOL; CARLOS URCELAY

JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL AND APPLIED PYROLYSIS

Elservier B.V.

Año: 2017

0165-2370

A B S T R A C TThis study examined bio-oil and solid products generated from the diatom Melosira varians by fast pyrolysis usinga fixed-bed reactor with inert gas flow and a vacuum medium. The effect of temperature (300?700 °C) onproduct yields, the bio-oil composition and the properties of the solid fraction were evaluated. It was found thatthe most suitable temperature to obtain significant amounts of high-quality bio-oil (29% yield) was 450 °C, atwhich point fatty acids appeared as main components. Under all operating conditions a solid material, mainlycomposed of siliceous frustules, was the most abundant product (59?88% yield). These materials were exhaustivelycharacterized by SEM microscopy, Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, elemental analysis and BETsurface analyses. The structure and morphology of the biosilica were practically unaltered in the studied temperaturerange. The conductivity properties of the solids derived from diatom and their composites with carbonnanotubes were determined using cyclic voltammetry