High-efficient production of fatty alcohol via hydrogenation of fatty acid over Cu-NbOx/SBA-15 catalyst

Abstract

Cu/SBA-15 and Cu-NbOx/SBA-15 catalysts were prepared and evaluated in the hydrogenation of palmitic acid to palmitic alcohol. A high palmitic alcohol yield of 90.8% was obtained using palmitic acid as feedstock. NbOx has been considered to be crucial for the excellent performance and the synergy between Cu and NbOx was well investigated. The interaction between Cu species and NbOx-containing support was studied by various characterizations, such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), H2-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR) and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The kinetic data for rate determining step were also collected. The synergistic effect of Cu and NbOx to catalytic activity was discussed and the following insights were obtained: i) the NbOx doping led to form abundant Cu species with more electron-deficient, which is beneficial for the production of alcohol; ii) the oxygen affinity of NbOx promotes the adsorption of oxygen-containing group. Finally, the natural product of palm oil was taken as feedstock and an ideal yield 84.2% of palmitic alcohol was harvested.