Pre-treatment of litsea cubeba nucleolus oil for bio-based aviation fuels

Though litsea cubeba nucleolus oil has been used to prepare low level products such as alkanolamides for a long time, the main constituents including lauric acid, are thought to be excellent raw materials for bio-based aviation fuels since the carbon atomic numbers are around 8-16. Hydrogen peroxide decolorization, activated carbon/modified active floridin decolorization and phospholipase degumming methods were carried out to refine the oil and the best parameters were selected. It proves that the decolorization rate reaches up to 97.33% and the content of phosphatide is reduced from 1.036 mg/g to 0.036 mg/g. The results show that the best parameters are as follows,W(H₂O₂)=15%, t=80 min, T=110℃ for the H₂O₂ decolorization; the ratio of weight (activated carbon/modified active floridin)=1/15, t=40 min, T=80℃,W(adsorbent)=4% for the composite adsorption decolorization; and W(phosphatidase)=40 mg/kg, pH5.1, t=2.5 h, T=48℃ for the phospholipase degumming. It provides a cheap and convenient way with low loss rate and little effect on the component to refine litsea cubeba nucleolus oil to get bio-based aviation fuels by hydrodeoxygenation and other reactions.