Direct conversion of fatty acid triglycerides into motor fuel components

Abstract

A global problem humanity is facing today is that of finding new, renewable raw materials for production of fuels and petrochemical products. The topicality of this problem stems from the limitedness of the petro� leum resources and from the environmental pollution associated with the mining, transportation, and pro� cessing of fossil raw materials. One of the promising avenues to solve this problem, which is posed by the principles of green chemistry, needs new catalytic methods for producing petrochemicals from uncon� ventional feedstocks, primarily biomass. In this con� text, researchers have recently addressed the problem of obtaining motor fuel components and other tradi� tional petrochemicals from lipids produced both by various crops and by fungi and microalgae [1]. The processing of these materials typically includes the transesterification of a lipid mixture with methanol. The resulting methyl esters of higher fatty acids are used as biodiesel or are subjected to deoxygenation in order to improve the duel properties of the product (“green” diesel). Here, we suggest a way of obtaining a fuel from lipids without subjecting them to saponifica� tion. The new approach to the processing of fatty acid triglycerides of vegetal origin is based on their catalytic