Production of Motor Fuel Components by Processing Vegetable Oils Using a CoMo/Al2O3 Hydrotreating Catalyst and a ZSM-5 Zeolite Catalyst

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a need to search for new renewable energy sources from which it is possible to obtain hydrocarbons that are similar in composition and properties to hydrocarbons of petroleum origin. This is due to a significant increase in demand for natural minerals and, as a consequence, the depletion of their reserves. Today, the most promising alternative renewable energy sources are various vegetable oils, which are used both in their pure form, adding them to commercial mineral fuels, and as products of catalytic processing using various catalysts. However, most studies in the field of alternative energy show that the use of fuels obtained from vegetable oils is limited by their properties as well as the climatic conditions of the areas where biofuels can be used. In this work, we propose an integrated approach to the processing of vegetable oils, which allows us to obtain products of a wide fractional composition with improved operational properties. This approach consists of sequential processing of vegetable oils, first using a CoMo/Al2O3 hydrotreating catalyst in order to obtain classical long-chain hydrocarbons with unsatisfactory properties, and then using a zeolite catalyst, ZSM-5 type, which is characterized by the active occurrence of cracking, isomerization, and aromatization reactions, which are accompanied by a decrease in the length of the hydrocarbon chain of the hydrocarbons obtained during the hydrotreating process and, as a result, improving the physicochemical and low-temperature properties of the resulting processed products.