The
hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of vegetable oil and fatty acid is
extremely important for the sustainable production of diesel-range
hydrocarbons. The present work depicts the role of Ni/Mo (mole) in
the performance of alumina-supported NiMo catalysts for the HDO of
stearic acid. Both Ni and NiMo alloy coexist in the NiMo catalysts
depending on the Ni and Mo content. With increasing Ni/Mo (mole),
the NiMo alloy content in the catalyst increases with the simultaneous
decrease in the Ni content. The activity of NiMo catalysts thus enhances
with increasing Ni/Mo (mole). The reaction follows a decarbonylation
route over Ni sites and a HDO route over NiMo alloy species. C
17
and C
18
alkanes are thus observed as the dominating
hydrocarbon product over Ni and NiMo alloy-rich catalysts, respectively.
The activity of the NiMo catalyst further enhances with increasing
reaction temperature and metal (Ni + Mo) loading. The selectivity
to alkanes was, however, not affected by metal loading. A suitable
kinetic model was further established based on the reaction mechanism
to relate the kinetic data.
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