Green diesel production via continuous hydrotreatment of triglycerides over mesostructured ?-alumina supported NiMo/CoMo catalysts

In the present study, the deoxygenation of canola oil was performed in a continuous fix-bed reactor. Wormhole- like mesostructured y-alumina with nano-sized crystalline domains and pores in the range of 8 nm was one-pot synthesized using polymeric template assisted sol-gel method via evaporation-Induced self-assembly (EISA), Nanoporous catalysts were prepared by employing the incipient wetness co-impregnation method followed by a calcination step, 15 wt% MoO3 and 3 wt% NiO or CoO, were impregnated on the nanoporous support. Both catalysts favored the hydrodeoxygenation reaction pathway, and the liquid hydrocarbons consisted mostly of C15-C18 n-alkanes. The effects of LHSV and temperature on the liquid product composition were investigated in the range of, LHSV: 1 to 3 h - 1, and temperature of 325 to 400 °C while keeping other reaction conditions constant at a pressure of 450 psi and H2/oil of 600 mL mL -1.Slightly better catalytic activity was perceived for NiMo-S/y-alumina at higher LHSV compared to CoMo-S y-alumina catalyst. The liquid conversion on NiMo-S/y- alumina is higher than that on CoMo-S/y-alumina over the temperature range of 325 to 350 °C. At 375 °C, the conversion reached 100% over both catalysts. The production of green diesel range liquid products over NiMo-S/ y-alumina and CoMo-S/y-alumina was found optimal at 325°C and 1 h -1 LHSV.