In this work, the hydrotreatment of soybean oil over zeolite Y supported Ni-Mo and Ni-Fe catalysts, denoted as Ni-Mo/HY and Ni-Fe/HY, for sustainable alkane fuels was studied. The bimetallic catalysts were successfully synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation (ICI) method. Prior to the hydrotreatment of soybean oil, Ni-Mo/HY and Ni-Fe/HY catalysts were activated by reduction in the hydrogen atmosphere at 550°C. The hydrotreatment of soybean oil was carried out in a semi-batch reactor with H<sub>2</sub> pressure up to 41.3 bar (600 psi) at 300°C - 350°C for 6h. While the metal loadings of Ni-Fe/HY were fixed at 30 wt% of zeolite Y support, an increasing Fe content in Ni-Fe/HY tends to increase the acid values of the produced fuel, which is consistent with more stearic acid and palmitic acids found in the products according to the GC-FID (Figure 1). Ni-Fe/HY catalysts with more Fe seem to produce relatively more even carbon-number alkanes. Additionally, Ni-Fe/HY catalysts with a mass ratio of Ni/Fe=24/6 gave the largest extent of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of triglycerides. Similarly, the best degree of deoxygenation was obtained when the Ni/Mo mass ratio on Ni-Mo/Y is 4, more superior to that of Ni monometallic catalysts. Overall, the hydrotreatment of soybean oil catalyzed by 32Ni-8Mo/Y at 350°C and 40 bar could completely remove the oxygen atoms, possessing the highest yield of alkane products and the highest selectivity to the middle distillate simultaneously. Fresh and spent catalysts were characterized with various instruments to provide insight into the more understandings in hydrotreatment of triglycerides.

Hydrotreatment of soybean oil over bimetallic nickel-based catalysts supported on zeolite Y for biofuel production

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