Because
of the growing world energy demand, biofuels obtained from
the hydrotreatment of vegetable oils represent a renewable alternative
to replace fossil fuels. The development of mathematical models is
an accurate tool to design and simulate the performance of the reactor
to predict product yields during the hydrotreatment of these oils.
Better understanding of the different phenomena occurring during the
hydrotreatment of vegetable oils and parameters influencing on this
process by means of kinetic and reactor modeling is required. This
was the motivation to develop an exhaustive review on different aspects
of reaction kinetics, catalytic deactivation, and reactor modeling.
Kinetics of model compounds and real feedstocks (oils) used to produce
biofuels are analyzed and different assumptions for developing of
reaction rate equations are discussed. It has been recognized that
catalyst deactivation and reactor modeling must be deeply studied
and supported with experimental data. There are few reported models
that consider the mass transfer and temperature inside the catalytic
particle. However, there are no models that consider the phase distribution
and dispersion in the transient state, nor correlations
to calculate the solubility of hydrogen in this type of system.