Experimental investigation on improvement of storage stability of bio-oil derived from intermediate pyrolysis of Calophyllum inophyllum seed cake

Abstract Due to the unstable nature of bio-oil, it becomes mandatory to analyze the changes in physical and chemical properties of the bio-oil during storage to appreciate its chemical instability, for developing stabilization strategies. The present study aims to investigate the oxidative and thermal stability of bio-oil extracted from pyrolyzing Calophyllum inophyllum (CI) deoiled seed cake in a fixed bed reactor at 500 °C under the constant heating rate of 30 °C/min. Each stability analysis method involve an accelerated aging procedure based on standards established by ASTM (D5304 and E2009) and European standard (EN 14112). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry were employed to analytically characterize the un-aged and aged bio-oil samples. The results clearly depict that stabilizing Calophyllum inophyllum bio-oil with 10% (w/w) methanol improved its stability than that of the crude sample. Addition of methanol reduced the change in viscosity of bio-oil by 38.55% during accelerated aging process. The oxidation stability index of bio-oil stabilized with methanol was found to be 3.97 h which is in accordance with ASTM D6751. FT-IR and GC-MS results showed an increase in the relative concentration of C-O (carboxylic acids, ethers and esters) and C=O (carbonyl) functional groups in aged bio-oil samples.