The liquid products
condensed in collecting bottles which contain an aqueous
(pyrolignic acid) and oil (pyrolytic oil) phase were recovered by
washing with dichloromethane. They were separated from each
other using a separating funnel by decantation. Oil phase (pyrolytic
oil) was dried first using anhydrous sodium sulfate. Then the solvent
was evaporated at 313 K and 11 kPa pressure using rotary
evaporator to recover the oil which was recorded as bio-oil yield.
When the reactor was cooled to room temperature, the remaining
solid left behind was taken out, weighed and recorded as bio-char
yield considering the amount of catalyst. The conversion (liquid
+ gas percentage) of A. pallida in pyrolysis was calculated by
the same method used in liquefaction. The amount of gaseous
products was calculated by substraction of solid and liquid yields
from the amount of initial raw material (20 g). The following equations
were used to calculate the conversion and product yields.