The liquid phase deoxygenation reaction of palmitic acid has been investigated in a batch reactor over carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-supported MoO2 and Pd catalysts under hydrogen atmosphere. The results showed that palmitic acid can be converted completely at 220 degrees C on MoO2/CNTs catalyst with high hexadecane selectivity (92.2%). The H-2 pressure of the reaction can control the product's selectivity. Compared with noble metal Pd based catalyst, MoO2-based catalyst is a much better catalyst because of its high activity, selectivity, stability and low cost. Product distribution revealed that Pd offered high selectivity for penraclecane, whereas MoO2 showed excellent selectivity for hexadecane, which showed more favorable atom efficiency. Therefore, the MoO2/CNTs catalyst can be regarded as an attractive candidate for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of long chain Carry acids to produce high-grade transportation biofuels. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.