Thermocatalytic conversion of non-edible Neem seeds towards clean fuel and chemicals

In this work, a non-edible seed Neem (Azadirachta indica) was used to find out it's potential to produce fuels and chemicals using thermo-catalytic pyrolysis. The physiochemical characterization confirmed the seed's bioenergy potential. Thermal and catalytic pyrolysis were carried out at optimum conditions (500 °C temperature, 80 °C min⁻¹ heating rate, 0.5 mm particle size and 80 mL min⁻¹ nitrogen gas flow rate) which produced maximum liquid yield (49.53 wt. % at thermal, 54.06 wt. % and 52.08 wt. % for K₂CO₃ and Zeolite respectively at Biomass/Catalyst ratio 8:1). The comparative study of thermal and catalytic pyrolytic liquid confirmed that the yield as well as fuel properties of pyrolytic liquid were enhanced with the use of catalysts. It was also noticed that the energy content of gases increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature. Further, with increase in pyrolysis temperature, the amounts of hydrogen and hydrocarbons increased significantly, but at the same time, the formation of carbon dioxide was reduced.