A Clean Hydroprocessing of Jatropha Oil into Biofuels over a High Performance Ni-HPW/CNT Catalyst

Abstract

The nickel (Ni) and phosphotungstic acid (HPW) supported on carbon nanotubes (CNT) were prepared by impregnation method for hydroprocessing of Jatropha oil. The Ni-HPW/CNT catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS, FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, NH3-TPD, and TGA. The effects of reaction parameters, such as reaction temperature (280–400[Formula: see text]C), time-on-stream (0–100[Formula: see text]h), types of support, the amount of added HPW, and coking deposition were investigated. The cracking performance was evaluated by gas chromatography (GC). The yield of C15–C18 alkanes was 88.5[Formula: see text]wt.%, Iso/n ratio was 0.8 and conversion was 97.7% at 320[Formula: see text]C, 3.0[Formula: see text]MPa and 1.0/h over the Ni-HPW/CNT catalyst, while the yield of [Formula: see text] alkanes reached 51.9[Formula: see text]wt.% at 400[Formula: see text]C. The distribution of products could be adjusted by reaction temperature. The cracking performance was elevated by the addition of HPW and the electrical conductivity. The C15–C18 alkanes were further cracked through two cracking circulations. Meanwhile, the catalyst was used without sulfurization and the cracking process was green.