Comparative study of catalytic hydrodeoxygenation performance over SBA-15 and TiO2 supported 20 wt% Ni for bio-oil upgrading

Abstract

The Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts with 20 wt% nickel with different metal–support interaction strength were designed using ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-15) and TiO2 (P25). The Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts with 20 wt% nickel were investigated using various characterization techniques. It was found that the Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts with 20 wt% nickel possess different nickel particle size and different reducibility because of the different strength between nickel and support interaction. Both Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts were tested for the hydrodeoxygenation reaction of a model bio-oil using a fixed-bed reactor at different evaluation conditions. It was found that under high hydrogen pressure (≥7 bar), both Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/TiO2 catalysts are highly efficient because the organic oxygen compound could be converted completely. And the product selectivity is very sensitive to the hydrogen pressure. Under low hydrogen pressure (3–5 bar) Ni/TiO2 catalyst show rather higher selectivity toward aromatic hydrocarbon as compared with Ni/SBA-15 catalyst. Lower hydrogen pressure and reaction temperature will be beneficial to the aromatic hydrocarbon production. It is very important to reduction for the H2 consumption cost. TiO2 is a very potential candidate support for the catalyst design aiming to the sustainable aromatic hydrocarbon production.