One-Step Hydrotreatment of Vegetable Oil to Produce High Quality Diesel-Range Alkanes

A one‐step hydrotreatment of vegetable oil combining deoxygenation and isomerization to directly produce low cloud point, high quality diesel is devised. The Pt/zeolite bifunctional catalysts prepared by using SAPO‐11 and ZSM‐22 zeolites as supports are used in this process. Catalytic reactions are conducted in a fixed‐bed reactor under a hydrogen atmosphere. Over the bifunctional catalyst, 100 % conversion of soybean oil is obtained at 357 °C, 4 MPa, and 1 h−1, and 80 % organic liquid yield is achieved, which is close to the maximum theoretical liquid yield. In the organic products, the alkanes selectivity is 100 % with an i‐alkanes selectivity above 63 %. NH3‐temperature programmed desorption (TPD), pyridine IR spectroscopy, and other characterization techniques are used to study the effect of the support acidity on the reaction pathway. Over the Pt/zeolite bifunctional catalyst with less strong Lewis acid sites, the reaction proceeds via the decarboxylation plus decarbonylation pathway. This one‐step method provides a new strategy to produce low cloud point, high quality diesel from biomass feedstock in a more economic and attractive way. From vegetable oil to diesel: The one‐step hydrotreatment of vegetable oil combining deoxygenation and isomerization provides a new strategy to directly produce low cloud point, high quality diesel from biomass feedstock. The support acidity of the Pt/zeolite bifunctional catalyst greatly influences this process. Over the catalyst with more Brønsted acid sites and less strong Lewis acid sites, a more economically attractive pathway occurs.