Influence of Natural Mordenite Activation Mode on Its Efficiency as Support of Nickel Catalysts for Biodiesel Upgrading to Renewable Diesel

In the present work, natural mordenite originated from volcanic soils in Greek islands, activated using HCl solution and HCl solution followed by NaOH solution, was used as support for preparing two metallic nickel catalysts (30 wt.% Ni). The catalysts were thoroughly characterized (XRF, N₂ adsorption-desorption, SEM, XRD, TEM, H₂-TPR, NH₃-TPD) and evaluated for biodiesel upgrading to green (renewable) diesel. Double activation of natural mordenite optimized its supporting characteristics, finally resulting in a supported nickel catalyst with (i) enhanced specific surface area (124 m² g^-1) and enhanced mean pore diameter (14 nm) facilitating mass transfer; (ii) easier nickel phase reduction; (iii) enhanced Ni⁰ dispersion and thus high active surface; (iv) balanced population of moderate and strong acid sites; (v) resistance to sintering; and (vi) low coke formation. Over the corresponding catalyst, the production of a liquid consisting of 94 wt.% renewable diesel was achieved, after 9 h of reaction at 350 °C and 40 bar H₂ pressure, in a semi-batch reactor under solvent-free conditions.

Catalytic Hydroprocessing of Single-Cell Oils to Hydrocarbon Fuels : Converting microbial lipids to fuels is a promising approach to replace fossil fuels

Microbial lipids hold great promise as biofuel precursors, and research efforts to convert such lipids to renewable diesel fuels have been increasing in recent years. In contrast to the numerous literature reviews on growing, characterising and extracting lipids from oleaginous microbes, and on converting vegetable oils to hydrocarbon fuels, this review aims to provide insight into aspects that are specific to hydroprocessing microbial lipids. While standard hydrotreating catalysts generally perform well with terrestrial oils, differences in lipid speciation and the presence of co-extracted compounds, such as chlorophyll and sterols, introduce additional complexities into the process for microbial lipids. Lipid cleanup steps can be introduced to produce suitable feedstocks for catalytic upgrading.

Microbial lipids from organic wastes: Outlook and challenges

Microbial lipids have recently drawn a lot of attention as renewable sources for biochemicals production. Strong research efforts have been addressed to efficiently use organic wastes as carbon source for microbial lipids, which would definitively increase the profitability of the production process and boost a bio-based economy. This review compiles interesting traits of oleaginous microorganisms and highlights current trends on microbial- and process-oriented approaches to maximize microbial oil production from inexpensive substrates like lignocellulosic sugars, volatile fatty acids and glycerol. Furthermore, downstream processes such as cell harvesting or lipid extraction, that are decisive for the cost-effectiveness of the process, are discussed. To underpin microbial oils within the so demanded circular economy, associated challenges, recent advances and possible industrial applications that are also identified in this review.

Magnetically separable Ru-containing catalysts in supercritical deoxygenation of fatty acids

In the current paper, the possibility of the use of magnetically separable catalysts containing ruthenium oxide species in the supercritical deoxygenation of stearic acid for producing of the second generation of biodiesel is reported. Three different supports (silica, ceria, and hypercrosslinked polystyrene) were used for the stabilization of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and Ru-containing particles. The effect of support on the magnetic properties as well as the catalytic activity of the obtained systems was studied. All synthesized catalysts were shown to provide high stearic acid conversion (up to 95 %). The highest yield of C17+ hydrocarbons (up to 86 %) was observed while using the Ru–Fe3O4-HPS system. Ru–Fe3O4-HPS was characterized by the high values of the specific surface area (364 m2/g) and saturation magnetization (4.5 emu/g). The chosen catalytic system was found to maintain its catalytic activity for a minimum of 10 consecutive cycles.

Promoting Effects of Al on Ni-Based Catalyst for the Hydrodeoxygenation Performance of Ethyl Acetate

The mesoporous Ni20/Al-KIT-6 (denoted as N20AxK) catalysts with different Al content (1–9 wt%) were prepared, metal Ni and KIT-6 modified by Al were used as active component and support, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the prepared N20AxK catalysts were characterized by H2-TPR, XRD, BET, TEM, and H2-TPD. The catalytic hydrodeoxygenation(HDO) performance of N20AxK catalysts was evaluated by ethyl acetate catalytic HDO. The results show that the catalytic HDO performance of the prepared N20AxK catalysts is related to the adsorption and activation performance for H2 molecules, as well as the dispersion of matal Ni active components. N20A5K catalyst shows the best H2 adsorption property and Ni dispersion. N20A5K catalyst presents superior catalytic HDO performance. At 300 °C and atmospheric pressure, the conversion of ethyl acetate and ethane selectivity of N20A5K catalyst are 99.3 % and 97.4 %, respectively. Besides, the N20A5K catalyst exhibits good stability.

Effect of Surface Composition and Structure of the Mesoporous Ni/KIT-6 Catalyst on Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation Performance

A series of Ni/KIT6 catalyst precursors with 25 wt.% Ni loading amount were reduced in H2 at 400, 450, 500, and 550 °C, respectively. The studied catalysts were investigated by XRD, Quasi in-situ XPS, BET, TEM, and H2-TPD/Ranalysis methods. It was found that reduction temperature is an important factor affecting the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) performance of the studied catalysts because of the Strong Metal Support Interaction Effect (SMSI). The reduction temperature influences mainly the content of active components, crystal size, and the abilityfor adsorbing and activating H2. The developed pore structure and large specific surface area of the KIT-6 support favored the Ni dispersion. The RT450 catalyst, which was prepared in H2 atmosphere at 450 °C, has the best HDO performance. Ethyl acetate can be completely transformed and maintain 96.8% ethane selectivity and 3.2% methane selectivity at 300 °C. The calculated apparent activation energies of the prepared catalysts increased in the following order: RT550 > RT400 > RT500 > RT450.

Octanoic acid hydrodeoxygenation over bifunctional Ni/Al-SBA-15 catalysts

Hydroprocessing of fatty carboxylic acids over 5 wt% Ni/Al-SBA-15 reveals a strong dependence of product yield and selectivity on Si : Al ratio.

Acetalization Catalysts for Synthesis of Valuable Oxygenated Fuel Additives from Glycerol

Biodiesel is one of the most attractive sources of clean energy. It is produced by the transformation of vegetable oils with up to 10% formation of glycerol as a by-product. Therefore, development of new approaches for processing bio-glycerol into such value-added chemical compounds as solketals is necessary. Thus, various six- and five-membered cyclic compounds can be prepared by acetalization of glycerol with aldehyde or ketone. The resulting glycerol oxygenates are excellent fuel additives that increase viscosity, octane or cetane number, and stability to oxidation. In addition, these products significantly reduce carbon monoxide emissions from standard diesel fuel. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the glycerol valorization for the sustainable production of bio-additives. The review includes a discussion of the innovative and potential catalysts to produce solketals.

Development of High Performance Heterogeneous Catalysts for Selective Cleavage of C-O and C-C Bonds of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates

The environmental impact of CO₂ emissions via the use of fossil resources as chemical feedstock and fuels has stimulated research to utilize renewable biomass feedstock. The biogenic compounds such as polyols are highly oxygenated and their valorization requires the new methods to control the oxygen to carbon ratio of the chemicals. The catalytic cleavage of C-O bonds and C-C bonds is promising methods, but the conventional catalyst systems encounter the difficulty to obtain the high yields of the desired products. This review describes our recent development of the high performance heterogeneous catalysts for the valorization of the biogenic chemicals such as glycerol, furfural, and levulinic acid via selective cleavage of C-O bonds and C-C bonds in the liquid-phase. Selective C-O bond cleavage by hydrogenolysis enables production of various diols useful as engineering plastics, antifreeze, and cosmetics in high yields. The success of the selective C-C bond scission of levulinic acid can be applied to a wide range of the biogenic oxygenates such as carboxylic acids, esters, lactones, and primary alcohols, in which the selective C-C bond scission at adjacent to the oxygen functional groups are achieved. Furthermore, valorization of glycerol by selective acetylation and acetalization, and of levulinic acid by hydrogenation is described. Our catalysts show excellent performance compared to the reported catalysts in the aforementioned valorization.

New Routes for Refinery of Biogenic Platform Chemicals Catalyzed by Cerium Oxide-supported Ruthenium Nanoparticles in Water

Highly selective hydrogenative carbon-carbon bond scission of biomass-derived platform oxygenates was achieved with a cerium oxide-supported ruthenium nanoparticle catalyst in water. The present catalyst enabled the selective cleavage of carbon-carbon σ bonds adjacent to carboxyl, ester, and hydroxymethyl groups, opening new eight synthetic routes to valuable chemicals from biomass derivatives. The high selectivity for such carbon-carbon bond scission over carbon-oxygen bonds was attributed to the multiple catalytic roles of the Ru nanoparticles assisted by the in situ formed Ce(OH)₃.