Catalytic deoxygenation of methyl laurate as a model compound to hydrocarbons on hybrid catalysts composed of Ni–Zn alloy and HY zeolite

Abstract

BACKGROUND The deoxygenation of renewable vegetable oils in a hydrogen atmosphere is feasible for yielding diesel‐like hydrocarbons. In this work, hybrid catalysts composed of Ni–Zn alloy and HY zeolite were designed to achieve a highly efficient deoxygenation. RESULTS NiZn‐LDH‐HY, NiZn‐O‐HY and NiZn/HY hybrid catalysts composed of Ni‐rich Ni–Zn alloy and HY zeolite were prepared by various methods. NiZn/HY prepared by a deposition–precipitation method gave higher Ni dispersion than NiZn‐LDH‐HY and NiZn‐O‐HY obtained by mortar milling. In the deoxygenation of methyl laurate as a model compound at 330 °C and 3.0 MPa, the hybrid catalysts led to higher reaction rates (ca 9.0 × 10−5 mol g−1Ni s−1) than NiZnAl not combined with HY (2.5 × 10−5 mol g−1Ni s−1). Particularly, NiZn/HY gave higher total selectivity to C11 and C12 hydrocarbons (80.2%) than NiZn‐O‐HY and NiZn‐LDH‐HY (47.4 and 41.5%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS This work provides an approach for preparing highly efficient catalysts for deoxygenation of esters to hydrocarbons by combining Ni–Zn alloy and HY zeolite. We deem that the closer proximity between metallic Ni and acid sites facilitates the deoxygenation via a synergetic effect between the two kinds of sites. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

Methyl palmitate hydrodeoxygenation over silica‐supported nickel phosphide catalysts in flow reactor: experimental and kinetic study

“…The considerations discussed above led us to conclude that the set of reactions included in the schemes of ester conversion differs significantly even for the same type of catalyst. Similar discrepancies in the HDO of esters are found in works performed using sulfide or metal‐based catalysts (Table S1).…”