Composition and fuel characters of gasoline-like fraction in the pyrolysis oil of sludge

Pyrolysis is one of the promising disposal outlets of sewage sludge, which can not only solve the environmental problem but also obtain gas and liquid fuels. In this study, the pyrolysis oil of sewage sludge was obtained in a fixed bed. Distillation, widely used in chemical industry, was employed for pyrolysis oil process to get the light fraction termed as gasoline-like fraction. It is found that the hydrocarbon chain length of the gasoline-like fraction distributes across the C₆~13 which is close to that of gasoline. It is a complex mixture of many organics including 24.32% alkanes, 36.33% alkenes, 22.96% aromatics and 16.39% N- and O- containing compounds. Except for serious smell and high sulfur content, the gasoline-like fraction is close to the real gasoline for motor vehicle for the characters of distillation, Cu strip corrosion, mechanical admixture and the content of unsaturated hydrocarbon. The comparison of the gasoline-like fraction with gasoline for motor vehicle indicates that the former has the potential to substitute for fossil gasoline.