Hydrodeoxygenation of safflower oil over cobalt-doped metal oxide catalysts for bio-aviation fuel production

Abstract

The catalytic hydrodeoxygenation process provides an alternative route for the production of renewable jet fuel, which can directly replace petroleum-derived hydrocarbons. To this end, the catalytic performance of Co-based catalysts supported by different metal oxides, γ-Al2O3, TiO2, ZnO and ZrO2 was tested to evaluate their catalytic activity and product selectivity in hydrodeoxygenation of safflower oil. The results indicated that catalytic performance changed in response to acidity, morphologies and particle size of catalysts. Benefiting from these combined characteristics, Co/ZnO catalyst exhibited a highly catalytic activity, being capable of producing jet fuel-range hydrocarbon selectivity of 65.96% under reaction parameters of 350 °C of reaction temperature, 8 h of reaction time and 75 bar of H2 initial pressure. In addition to superior activity, the coke content of Co/ZnO was much lower compared to other employed catalysts thereby affecting the stability of the catalyst and resulting in less deactivation and coke formation.