Green diesel production over nickel-alumina nanostructured catalysts promoted by zinc

Autor: Emmanouil Simianakis, Christos Kordulis, Kyriakos Bourikas, Eleana Kordouli, Mantha Gousi, George D. Panagiotou, Alexis Lycourghiotis, Spyros Ladas
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Catalysis Today. 355:903-909
ISSN: 0920-5861
Popis: Following the one step co-precipitation technique we have synthesized a series of Ni-Zn catalysts supported on alumina. The series involves one non-promoted sample containing 60 wt % Ni and three zinc promoted samples containing 1, 2 and 5 wt % Zn and 59, 58 and 55 wt % Ni, respectively. The specimens were characterized using nitrogen sorption isotherms, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM and XPS. The catalytic performance of the samples prepared was evaluated in the selective deoxygenation of sunflower oil using a semi-batch reactor (310 °C, 40 bar of hydrogen, hydrogen flow rate equal to 100 mL/min and reactant to catalyst ratio equal to 100 mL/g). The control of the co-precipitation procedure and the direct reduction of dried precipitate resulted to mesoporous nano-structured catalysts with high surface area (247–290 m2 g−1). The non-promoted sample was mainly comprised from NiAl2O4 particles and the promoted ones from Ni-Zn alloys and intermetallic oxo-phases (IMPs) supported on largely amorphous Al2O3 nano-grains. Zinc increased the total yield of alkanes in the diesel range (n-15, n-16, n-17, n-18) though it does not affect the mechanistic scheme of the selective deoxygenation of sunflower oil which is largely realized via decarbonylation/decarboxylation. The promoting action of zinc was attributed to the favoring of the Ni-Zn alloys and IMPs formation. It is more pronounced in the sample with the medium zinc content (58 wt % Ni, 2 wt % Zn, 40 wt % Al2O3) in which an increase of 18% in the total yield of hydrocarbons has been obtained. The maximization of the zinc promoting action in this sample reflects the good compromise between the extent of alloying and surface acidity.
Databáze: OpenAIRE