Production of fuels via thermal decomposition of copper oleates from CuO.

Abstract

In this work, the thermal decomposition of copper carboxylates formed from CuO and different proportions of oleic acid and CuO was used to produce liquid and gaseous fuels. These reactions gave rise to solid, liquid and gaseous fractions that were studied by different techniques, such as XRD, TG, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, TEM, NMR and GC–MS. The liquid fraction obtained was the largest, made up mainly of oleic acid, i.e., the starting reagent was regenerated in the reaction. The gas fraction was the second largest, consisting mainly of hydrogen gas, with selectivity above 80%. The solid fraction was the smallest but showed the formation of metallic copper, carbon and copper(I) oxide. This work showed that it was possible to produce materials from acid oils and metal oxides that, after being thermally decomposed, generated gas fuels of great industrial interest, as well as metal phases, and the regeneration of the acid used as the starting reagent.