TY - JOUR
T1 - Selective catalytic deoxygenation of palm oil to produce green diesel over Ni catalysts supported on ZrO2 and CeO2–ZrO2
T2 - Experimental and process simulation modelling studies
AU - Tsiotsias, Anastasios I.
AU - Hafeez, Sanaa
AU - Charisiou, Nikolaos D.
AU - Al-Salem, Sultan M.
AU - Manos, George
AU - Constantinou, Achilleas
AU - AlKhoori, Sara
AU - Sebastian, Victor
AU - Hinder, Steven J.
AU - Baker, Mark A.
AU - Polychronopoulou, Kyriaki
AU - Goula, Maria A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The current work investigates the catalytic deoxygenation of palm oil using Ni supported on ZrO2 and CeO2–ZrO2 catalysts in a fixed-bed continuous flow reactor. The calcined, reduced and spent catalysts are characterized via XRD, N2-physisorption, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD, H2-TPR, TPO, XPS and TEM to evaluate their physicochemical characteristics and active surface state, as well as the effect of CeO2 modification of the support to the catalytic properties. A process simulation model is developed to validate the experimental results and a good model validation is observed. This work therefore aims to improve the activity of Ni/ZrO2 catalysts via the support modification with CeO2 and apply a theoretical model that is able to predict the influence of operating parameters on the catalytic performance without the need to conduct extensive and time-consuming laboratory experiments.MAG and NDC gratefully acknowledge that this researched was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” (MIS-5050170). KP and SA acknowledge the financial support from the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge through the grant AARE-2019-233 and the support from Khalifa University through the grant RC2-2018-024. VS acknowledges the ICTS ELECMI-LMA for offering access to their instruments and expertise.
Funding Information:
MAG and NDC gratefully acknowledge that this researched was co-financed by Greece and the European Union ( European Social Fund-ESF ) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” ( MIS-5050170 ). KP and SA acknowledge the financial support from the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge through the grant AARE-2019-233 and the support from Khalifa University through the grant RC2-2018-024 . VS acknowledges the ICTS ELECMI-LMA for offering access to their instruments and expertise.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - The selective deoxygenation of palm oil to produce green diesel has been investigated over Ni catalysts supported on ZrO2 (Ni/Zr) and CeO2–ZrO2 (Ni/CeZr) supports. The modification of the support with CeO2 acted to improve the Ni dispersion and oxygen lability of the catalyst, while reducing the overall surface acidity. The Ni/CeZr catalyst exhibited higher triglyceride (TG) conversion and yield for the desirable C15–C18 hydrocarbons, as well as improved stability compared to the unmodified Ni/Zr catalyst, with TG conversion and C15–C18 yield remaining above 85% and 80% respectively during 20 h of continuous operation at 300 oC. The high C17 yields also revealed the dominance of the deCOx (decarbonylation/decarboxylation) pathway. A fully comprehensive process simulation model has been developed to validate the experimental findings in this study, and a very good validation with the experimental data has been demonstrated. The model was then further utilised to investigate the effects of temperature, H2 partial pressure, H2/oil feed ratio and LHSV. The model predicted that maximum triglyceride conversion was attainable at reaction conditions of 300 °C temperature, 30 bar H2 partial pressure, H2/oil of 1000 cm3/cm3 feed ratio and 1.2 h−1 LHSV.
AB - The selective deoxygenation of palm oil to produce green diesel has been investigated over Ni catalysts supported on ZrO2 (Ni/Zr) and CeO2–ZrO2 (Ni/CeZr) supports. The modification of the support with CeO2 acted to improve the Ni dispersion and oxygen lability of the catalyst, while reducing the overall surface acidity. The Ni/CeZr catalyst exhibited higher triglyceride (TG) conversion and yield for the desirable C15–C18 hydrocarbons, as well as improved stability compared to the unmodified Ni/Zr catalyst, with TG conversion and C15–C18 yield remaining above 85% and 80% respectively during 20 h of continuous operation at 300 oC. The high C17 yields also revealed the dominance of the deCOx (decarbonylation/decarboxylation) pathway. A fully comprehensive process simulation model has been developed to validate the experimental findings in this study, and a very good validation with the experimental data has been demonstrated. The model was then further utilised to investigate the effects of temperature, H2 partial pressure, H2/oil feed ratio and LHSV. The model predicted that maximum triglyceride conversion was attainable at reaction conditions of 300 °C temperature, 30 bar H2 partial pressure, H2/oil of 1000 cm3/cm3 feed ratio and 1.2 h−1 LHSV.
KW - Ceria-zirconia
KW - Computational fluid dynamics
KW - Green diesel
KW - Process modelling
KW - Selective deoxygenation
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85148726496
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.02.038
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.02.038
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148726496
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 206
SP - 582
EP - 596
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -
