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Catalytic hydrocracking of waste vegetable oil using high pressure flow apparatus to obtain jet fuel range alkanes

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Chemical Society of Pakistan

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The hydrocracking of waste vegetable (cooking) oil was studied over two different catalysts as an alternative way to produce jet fuel range alkanes (C9 – C15). Experiments were carried out in a packed bed reactor at temperatures of 400, 425 and 450°C and with a hydrogen pressure of 120 bar. Two types of fresh and regenerated catalyst were used: ruthenium/alumina (Ru-γ- Al2O3) and nickel oxide/alumina (NiO-γ- Al2O3), both subject to a sulphidation pre-treatment prior to the experimental run. At the conditions studied, the hydrocracking on fresh NiO-γ- Al2O3 catalyst at the highest temperature gave the highest concentration on a mass basis (7.14 wt. %) of C9-C15 hydrocarbons in the liquid product. The liquid product yield ranged from 29.83 to 92.06 wt. %. The higher yields were obtained at the higher reaction temperatures using fresh catalyst. Within the liquid product, the higher percentages of C9 – C15 alkanes were achieved at the higher temperatures using fresh catalyst, indicating that an increase in reaction temperature favours hydrocracking. Furthermore, fresh catalyst proved to have a greater effect on the degree of hydrocracking when compared to its regenerated counterpart. Fresh untreated catalyst proved less effective than regenerated treated catalyst indicating the importance of the pre-treating stage in order to activate the catalyst for hydrocracking of triglycerides. The balance of the product was made up of gas and a waxy residue. This waxy residue was found to contain a small portion of similar alkanes to those in the liquid product but would require further processing to separate out the target compounds from the high molecular weight hydrocarbons.

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Kiambi, S. L. 2016. Catalytic hydrocracking of waste vegetable oil using high pressure flow apparatus to obtain jet fuel range alkanes. Journal of the Chemical Society of Pakistan. 38(3): 588-593.

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