Conversion of methyl ester fatty acid from rice bran oil into fuel fraction via hydrocracking reaction over zeolite catalyst supported of Ni, Co and Mo metals

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to produce bio-gasoline fraction from methyl ester fatty of rice bran oil through catalytic hydrocracking systems. The following method was; 1) Preparation and impregnation of Ni, Co and Mo metals inactivated commercial natural zeolite (CNZ-A) to be NiO/CNZ-A, NiOMoO/CNZ-A and NiOCoOMoO/CNZ-A, 2) Production of methyl ester fatty acid (MEFA) from rice bran oil using esterification and trans-esterification process, and 3) Catalytic hydrocracking MEFA at a temperature of 350oC, 400oC and 450oC respectively. Furthermore, the characterization of catalysts using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) resulted in no significant changes in crystal systems and catalysts were indicated as a mordenite. Then, the analyzing of nitrogen adsorption through the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method depicts the reducing in the surface area of catalysts, however, the mean pore and pore volume of catalysts experienced an increasing trend. Moreover, the highest liquid product was 90.24% of NiO-CoO-MoO/CNZ-A catalyst (400°C), with selectivity for gasoline and diesel fractions was 28.34% and 71.65%, respectively. In essence, the three metals (Ni,Co and Mo) gave the highest percentage of biogasoline products among the three catalysts.