Study of oily sludge pyrolysis combined with fine particle removal using a ceramic membrane in a fixed-bed reactor

Oil sludge is one of solid wastes that produced in the oil industry. Pyrolysis has been considered as an attractive technology for oil recovery. However, solid fine particles could be generated during process of oil sludge pyrolysis that could cause fouling and blockage in downstream equipment and connections. In this work, a ceramic membrane was used in the reactor to filter the fine particles in the product gas. The influence of temperatures on the component of pyrolysis gas and oil were also investigated by GC-MS and FT-IR. The results showed that the ceramic membrane can trap different ranges of particles. For the particle size less than 38 mm and 38-75 mm, the mass fraction obtained in the presence of the ceramic membrane is higher than that collected without the membrane (from 1.62 to 3.07% and from 20.84 to 22.85%). A maximum oil yield of 10.47% and oil recovery ratio of 52.95% were obtained at 500 °C. The GC-MS analysis of the pyrolysis oil showed that the oil was composed of long-chain aliphatic compounds with a number of carbons ranging from C₁₀ − C₂₇.