The raw soybean (Glycine max) shell and the pine (Pinus elliotti)
sawdust were obtained from regional industries. The particle size of
the biomasses was mostly between 1 and 6 mm in the case of pine
sawdust and between 3 and 10 mm in the case of soybean shell;
these sizes are the consequence of previous processing in mills.
Fig. 1 shows the particle size distributions. The biomasses were
stored in hermetic plastic bags in a fresh and dry environment.
Before use, they were dried during 18 h at 100 C in an oven to
determine the water content. The catalyst was a commercial,
equilibrium FCC catalyst (E-Cat) of the octane-barrel type, with the
following main characteristics: particle size 100e120 mm; unit cell
size 24.26 Å; rare earth oxides 1.19%wt.; zeolite content 18.0%wt.;
total specific surface area 158 m2 g1
; micropore volume (t-plot)0.046 cm3 g1
; iron 0.35%wt., vanadium 0.10%wt. and nickel 0.06%
wt.