Sustainable production of bio-jet fuel and green gasoline from date palm seed oil via hydroprocessing over tantalum phosphate

Abstract

The conversion of biomass into liquid fuels has gained worldwide attention because of its potential to reduce pollution. Drop-in biofuels are non-oxygenated liquid hydrocarbons that are produced from renewable biomass sources. These biofuels (that consist of biogasoline, bio-jet fuel, and green diesel fractions) hold a lot of promise owing to their properties that are similar to those of fossil fuels. In this work, the use of tantalum phosphate (TaPa) as a hydroprocessing catalyst for the drop-in biofuel production from date palm seed oil under mild experimental conditions was investigated. Mesoporous TaPa was intrinsically synthesized and comprehensively characterized using several analytical techniques. Further, the catalyst performance was investigated for its various dosages (0–15 wt%) under different reaction times (2–4 h) and temperatures (300–450 °C), using 10 bar H2. Infrared spectroscopy and Gas chromatography techniques were used to characterize and quantify the product oil composition, respectively. Optimization of the proposed one-step reaction approach resulted in high yields of deoxygenated hydrocarbons that consisted of 53.6% of bio-jet fuel (C9-C15) and 35.9% of green diesel (C14-C20) fractions. The plausible pathways for the formation reactions of various linear and branched aliphatics and aromatics in the product oil are discussed. Besides, the reusability of the TaPa for continuous hydroprocessing of the bio-oil was demonstrated. Thus, the production of bio-jet fuel and green diesel using the date palm seed biomass-derived oil in the presence of TaPa catalyst is sustainable, efficient, safe, and has great potential for aviation applications.