Production of Diesel Range of Liquid Fuel from Natural Rubber (Polyisoprene) using Charred Palm Kernel Shell Fired Reactor

Abstract

Large amounts of natural rubber (NR) are produced in Ghana and exported out of Country in the raw form, every year, without any value addition. Natural rubber consists predominantly of the polymer cis-1,4-polyisoprene (-C₅H₈-)_n. This work investigated the generation of diesel range of liquid fuel from NR using a charred palm kernel shell fired reactor and a blower assembly in the temperature range of 350 – 450 °C. Samples of NR (collected from rubber plantation farmers in Nsuaem, in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Constituency of the Western Region of Ghana) were cut into crumbs of 1-3 cm and about 2.0 kg of the crumbs were fed from the top of a stainless steel reactor with dimensions 0.45 m diameter and 0.60 m height. About 0.10 kg of locally produced catalyst (JDank3) was added at a time to the reactor system followed by catalytic pyrolysis for 45 min. The catalytically cracked gas was then condensed finally in a plastic container, weighed and characterised by FTIR and GC-MS analyses. The results indicate that diesel-range of liquid fuel can be produced from NR, with an average yield of 0.623 and 0.815 litres/kg of plastics pyrolysed in the absence and presence of the locally manufactured catalyst, respectively. Results from the analyses by FTIR and GC-MS analyses showed that the liquid fuel consists primarily of paraffins and olefins with minor amounts of naphthenes, alkanols and alkanoic acids. It was concluded that the liquid fuel produced has a high combustion efficiency based on the dominance of paraffins and olefins in the content of the oil.