Solvent-free deoxygenation of biolipid into liquid alkanes over bifunctional Ni/B2O3-ZrO2 catalyst

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) 2024-11, Vol.375, p.132649, Article 132649
• Main Authors: Yu, Panjie, Xu, Jing, Liang, Rengan, Cai, Zhenping, Ma, Yongde, Zhang, Hongwei, Liu, Fujian, Cao, Yanning, Huang, Kuan, Jiang, Lilong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bifunctional catalyst; Biodiesel; Deoxygenation; Liquid alkanes; Methyl palmitate
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2024.132649

Solvent-free deoxygenation of biolipid can be obtained over Ni/B2O3-ZrO2 catalyst. [Display omitted] •Effective conversion of methyl palmitate and raw palm oil are achieved by bifunctional Ni/B2O3-ZrO2 catalysts under solvent-free conditions.•The primary reaction pathway-hydrodecarbonylation is identified by the product distribution and kinetics calculation.•The synergistic effect between Ni and modified B2O3-ZrO2 promotes the biolipid deoxygenation. The efficient deoxygenation of renewable biolipids into liquid alkanes within the diesel range is a key protocol for producing high-quality biofuels. In this work, the conversion of methyl palmitate and raw palm oil were accomplished utilizing a bifunctional catalyst of Ni catalysts supported on B2O3-ZrO2 under solvent-free conditions. Among various Ni loading ratios investigated, the catalyst featuring a 10 % Ni loading achieved 100 % conversion of methyl palmitate and 84.4 % of liquid yield, with approximately 65 % being C15 alkanes. Additionally, more than 91 % of hydrocarbons were also generated from raw palm oil. These results can be attributed to the synergistic interplay between the acid sites, following B2O3 modification, and the presence of Ni species. Furthermore, the analysis of product distribution, gas product detection and the kinetics calculation strongly supports that the deoxygenation process of methyl palmitate primarily follows the hydrodecarbonylation route, leading to the predominant formation of C15 alkane.