Hydroprocessing of Crude Palm Oil to Bio-Diesel Using Mesoporous Catalysts

Abstract

The demand for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel is increasing over the years. Many countries use the renewable organic material such as vegetable oils to produce biofuels to cope with this problem and the environmental problems. In this research, the production of liquid biofuels from hydroprocessing of crude palm oil was studied. Performance of different catalysts with mesoporous alumina support with different properties was investigated in the hydroprocessing of crude palm oil. The hydroprocessing reactions were carried out in a batch reactor at reaction temperature of 350°C under hydrogen pressure for an hour. In the present study, the performance of catalyst in liquid yield was found in the order of NiMo/Al2O3 <Mo/Al2O3 <CoMo/Al2O3. Meanwhile, among the studied mesopore-size range catalyst, CoMo/Al2O3 with the largest pore size of 16.1 nm in alumina support gave the highest conversion and liquid yield in the reaction.