Octadecanol Production from Methyl Stearate by Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation over Synergistic Co/HAP Catalysts

Abstract

As a potential alternative for fossil feedstocks, renewable natural oils are highly desirable for producing fuels or high added-value chemicals. Herein, catalytic transfer hydrogenation of methyl stearate to octadecanol using methanol and water as hydrogen donors was investigated over Co/ hydroxyapatite (HAP) catalysts synthesized by distinct methods. Multicharacterizations revealed that the strong interaction between Co and the HAP support of the Co/HAP catalysts could enhance the electron transferability, resulting in the excellent methyl stearate conversion (94.8%) and octadecanol selectivity (67.7%) at 290 °C in 5 h. The characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirmed that the combined Co 0 /Co δ+ active sites could synergistically boost the generation of H 2 and the hydrogenation of methyl stearate in the methanol/water system. In addition, the effects of various reaction conditions (e.g., the amount of methanol, reaction temperature, reaction time, and catalyst loading) were investigated in detail to understand the plausible reaction pathways. The results may have guiding significance on designing catalysts for efficient conversion of fatty acid methyl esters.

Engineering a Ni1Fe1–ZnO Interface to Boost Selective Hydrogenation of Methyl Stearate to Octadecanol

“…Our previous work has described the definition of methyl stearate conversion and the selectivity of different products. 31,32 2.5. Density Functional Theory (DFT) Calculations.…”

“…The samples were tested using eicosane as the internal standard. Our previous work has described the definition of methyl stearate conversion and the selectivity of different products. , …”

Recent progress of heterogeneous catalysts for transfer hydrogenation under the background of carbon neutrality

“…9d). 196 Grazia et al studied the process of producing 2-methylfuran in the gas phase of furfural using methanol as H transfer agent and FeVO 4 as the catalyst. At 320 °C, the yield of 2-methylfuran can reach 80%, with small amounts of 2,5-dimethylfuran and 2-vinylfuran as byproducts.…”

Nanoarchitectonics of Non-Noble-Metal-Based Heterogeneous Catalysts for Transfer Hydrogenation Reactions: Detailed Insights on Different Hydrogen Sources

“…Recently, Yao et al 108 performed transfer hydrogenation of renewable natural product, i.e., methyl stearate to produce octadecanol using Co/HAP-IWI (cobalt hydroxyapatite) as a heterogeneous catalyst, MeOH and H 2 O as a hydrogen source at 290 °C for 5 h with 94.8% methyl stearate conversion. The catalyst Co/HAP was synthesized by various method such as deposition−precipitation by dropwise (DPD) method (represented as Co/HAP-DPD), deposition−precipitation (DP) method by continuous stirring (represented as Co-HAP/ DP), incipient-wetness impregnation (IWI) method (represented as Co-HAP/IWI), impregnation method using H 2 O (IMW) as a solvent (represented as Co-HAP/IMW), impregnation method using ethanol (IME) as solvent (represented as Co-HAP/IME).…”