BIOCRUDES FROM HYDROCARBON PLANTATION AS A RENEWABLE SOURCE FOR FUELS

Abstract

The present investigation, which is a continuation of previous work in our laboratory, deals with the preparation
of biocrudes from latex-producing plants. The plants considered here are mainlyEuphorbia geniculataand
Euphorbia pseudograntiiof the family Euphorbiaceae which grow in the arid and/or semi-arid areas. Soxhlet
extractions of the dry powder of these plants using different polarity solvents: petroleum ether 60-
800C,cyclohexane, benzene or ethanol give,in general, exceptionally high yields of biocrudes compared with
the other latex-producing plants. These solvents are used either separately or consecutively. The highest yield
ever of biocrude (17.2%) is obtained with Euphorbia geniculata using ethanol as a solvent.
The extracted biocrudes are characterized with very low sulfur contents in the range of 0.01 to 0.04% and low
nitrogen contents in the range of 0.2 to 1.2%. The fuels obtained after conversion of these biocrudes are
considered,therefore, environmentally friendly. Furthermore, their average molecular weights in the range
of300 to 984 are most suitable for the conversion to different yields of fuels boiling in the ranges of gasoline,
kerosene or gas oil.
FT-IR measurements of the obtained biocrudesindicate that their main structures are multi cyclohexyl ring
systems with side chains having different functional groups such as hydroxyl, ester and unsaturation positions.