Abstract
To address the issues of greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuels, vegetable oilseeds, especially non-food oilseeds, are used as an alternative fuel resource. Vegetable oil derived from these oilseeds can be upgraded into hydrocarbon biofuel. Catalytic cracking and hydroprocessing are two of the most promising pathways for converting vegetable oil to hydrocarbon biofuel. Heterogeneous catalysts play a critical role in those processes. The present review summarizes current progresses and remaining challenges of vegetable oil upgrading to biofuel. The catalyst properties, applications, deactivation, and regeneration are reviewed. A comparison of catalysts used in vegetable oil and bio-oil upgrading is also carried out. Some suggestions for heterogeneous catalysts applied in vegetable oil upgrading to improve the yield and quality of hydrocarbon biofuel are provided for further research in the future.
Highlights
The large utilization of fossil fuels has caused serious issues including national energy security, depleting oil reservoirs, and environmental pollutions [1,2]
This review focuses on the upgrading of vegetable oil to hydrocarbon biofuel, and recent research of catalyzed vegetable oil upgrading in comparison with bio-oil upgrading
During the vegetable oil upgrading to hydrocarbon biofuel, deactivation of catalysts is a significant factor for the catalytic performance and commercial economic consideration [151]
Summary
The large utilization of fossil fuels has caused serious issues including national energy security, depleting oil reservoirs, and environmental pollutions [1,2]. Because of its high energy and low oxygen content, vegetable oil is easier to be converted into liquid biofuel than the bio-oil derived from cellulosic biomass [9]. The focus of this review is the hydrocarbon biofuel that is derived from catalytically upgrading of vegetable oil. Vegetable oilseeds are usually processed through cold press and solvent extraction technologies to produce vegetable oil, which is upgraded to liquid hydrocarbon biofuel [14,15]. The catalytic cracking and hydroprocessing technologies are two typical pathways for converting bio-oil to hydrocarbon biofuel [8,19]. Catalytic cracking is a cost effective and simple technology to convert vegetable oil to hydrocarbon biofuel [21]. Ishihara et al studied the catalytic cracking of soybean oil over zeolite containing mesoporous silica-aluminas catalyst. Some properties of the catalysts, the catalyst deactivation and catalyst regeneration used in vegetable oil upgrading will be discussed
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