Production of bio-based chemicals from palmitic acid by catalytic hydrotreating over low-cost Ni/LY char and limonite catalysts

Catalytic hydrotreating of fatty acid is respected to produce bio-based chemicals especially oleochemicals that can be applied as a high valuable raw material or intermediate materials for industries. Low-cost Ni/LY char and limonite catalysts can compensate the expensively commercial catalysts. Palmitic acid (PA) was represented as reactant. Chemical compositions of liquid product were analyzed and presented in compound group, carbon number distribution and product selectivity. Catalyst characteristics and liquid product properties were also investigated. BET surface area, pore volume, and pore size of the prepared Ni/LY char catalyst were 308 m2/g, 0.188 cm3/g and 2.43 nm, respectively, and those of limonite catalyst were 95 m2/g, 0.3 cm3/g and 12.59 nm, respectively. Based on the initial 3 MPa H2 at 300 °C, the obtained oleochemicals depended on catalyst type, reaction time and solvent. In case of Ni/LY char catalyst, ester was found in yield of 58.94% that mainly contained with isopropyl palmitate up to 82% of ester, meanwhile product from limonite was principally distributed in alcohol group with 51.84% in which n-pentadecanol was the major compound with 37.05% yield. The products showed the oxygen removal in range of 19.11–65.15 mol% and HHVs were increased to 32.11–34.13 MJ/kg when compared with PA.