Fuel, Vol.216, 738-746, 2018
Hydrotreatment of vegetable oil for green diesel over activated carbon supported molybdenum carbide catalyst
Catalysts were prepared and utilized in the hydrotreatment of vegetable oil and FAME to produce diesel-like hydrocarbons. Mo2C/AC catalyst displayed the higher catalytic activity with 100.00% conversion and 21.01% cracking ratio, compared to MoO/Al2O3 (85.64%, 25.79%), MoS2/Al2O3 (83.46%, 11.88%), Mo/Al2O3 (67.99%, 33.19%), NiP/Al2O3 (48.72%, 3.49%), Ni/Al2O3 (18.12%, 0.00%), and MoO/AC (56.05%, 18.55%). The reaction condition was also optimized, and the bio-diesel achieved 100.00% conversion, 9.67% cracking ratio and 0.73 HDO/DC ratio over Mo2C/AC under the optimal condition. The conversion over Mo2C/AC dropped from 100.00% to 87.08% and 71.06% with cycles. The results of XRD, XPS and N-2 adsorption-desorption demonstrated that the coke deposited on the surface of catalyst and the formation of MoO2 and MoO3 led to the deactivation. After regeneration, the catalyst recovered and achieved 99.36% conversion.