Synthesis of molybdenum-based catalysts on carbon support for partial hydrogenation reaction of biodiesel

Abstract

Nowadays, biodiesel is a renewable energy, which can decrease fossil fuel. It helped reducing air pollution. Partial Hydrogenation is one process which improves the biodiesel quality. In this research, activated carbon was produced from cattail leave via hydrothermal carbonization and chemical activation. The activated carbon was treated with 4 M of potassium hydroxide at 900oC, which exhibits 1323.38 m2g-1 of SBET. Several type of catalysts (Mo, Ni, Ci, Fe, MoNi, MoCu, and MoFe) were studied in this research, which were prepared using a rotary evaporation technique. The experiments reveal that MoNi/C catalyst indicate the highest dispersion of metal particle. The catalyst performance was evaluated by partial hydrogenation of soybean FAME,100oC and 4 bar. MoNi/C catalyst provided the best activity, which exhibits 19% conversion of C18:2 and C18:3 with less trans-C181 and C18:0. The oxidation stability was less after the hydrogenation of reaction, it was found to increase by 14.56 h. Moreover, the cold flow properties were determined in which the cloud point was 13 oC and the pour point was 10 oC.