Catalytic conversion of triglycerides by metal-based catalysts and subsequent modification of molecular structure by ZSM-5 and Raney Ni for the production of high-value biofuel

Feng Long, Qiaolong Zhai, Peng Liu, Xincheng Cao, Xia Jiang, Fei Wang, Linshan Wei, Chao Liu, Jianchun Jiang and Junming Xu

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 157, issue C, 1072-1080

Abstract: We report herein a catalytic deoxygenation strategy that allows the direct removal of oxygen atoms from triglycerides by lowering the activation energy through the use of metal-based catalysts. Activation energies were investigated by TG analysis, employing fatty acid salts as model compounds. Introducing different metal atoms into carboxyl groups has a substantial effect on the dynamic pyrolytic behavior, and decomposition activation energies varied in the range 80–260 kJ/mol. The catalytic cracking of soybean oil using SnO as a representative catalyst has been investigated in a 5 L reactor, whereby the catalyst lowered the decomposition temperature by approximately 40 °C and gave a conversion rate of approximately 66 wt%. A catalytic conversion mechanism has been proposed based on the results of TG-FTIR, GC, and GC-MS analyses. The pyrolysis products from the deoxygenation process had a high alkene content, endowing them with great potential for conversion into cyclic hydrocarbons used in real aviation fuels. Such conversion through aromatization and hydrogenation over ZSM-5 and Raney Ni catalyst has been investigated. Overall, a new refining process, including conversion of triglycerides to alkanes and terminal alkenes catalyzed by metal compounds, furnishing viable aviation and diesel fuels, is reported.

Keywords: Triglycerides; Catalytic conversion; Deoxygenation; ZSM-5; Raney Ni; Aviation biofuel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120308211
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:157:y:2020:i:c:p:1072-1080

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.117

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().