Chemoselective decarboxylation of ceiba oil to diesel-range alkanes over a red mud based catalyst under H2-free conditions

Nur Athirah Adzahar; N Asikin-Mijan; Mohd Izham Saiman; G Abdulkareem Alsultan; M S Mastuli; Mohd Razali Shamsuddin; Y H Taufiq-Yap

doi:10.1039/d2ra00853j

Chemoselective decarboxylation of ceiba oil to diesel-range alkanes over a red mud based catalyst under H₂-free conditions

RSC Adv. 2022 Jun 8;12(26):16903-16917. doi: 10.1039/d2ra00853j. eCollection 2022 Jun 1.

Authors

Nur Athirah Adzahar^{1

2}, N Asikin-Mijan³, Mohd Izham Saiman^{1

2}, G Abdulkareem Alsultan⁴, M S Mastuli⁵, Mohd Razali Shamsuddin⁶, Y H Taufiq-Yap^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Catalysis Science and Technology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia UPM Serdang Selangor 43400 Malaysia taufiq@upm.edu.my.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia UPM Serdang Selangor 43400 Malaysia mohdizham@upm.edu.my +603-9769 7238.
³ Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia UKM Bangi 43600 Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia ckin_mijan@yahoo.com nurul.asikin@ukm.edu.my.
⁴ Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah Kota Kinabalu Sabah 88400 Malaysia taufiqyap@ums.edu.my.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Environment, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam Selangor 40450 Malaysia.
⁶ Preparatory Centre for Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah Kota Kinabalu Sabah 88400 Malaysia.

Abstract

Concerns over global greenhouse gas emissions such as CO _x and NO _x as well as the depletion of petroleum fossil resources have motivated humankind to seek an alternative energy source known as green diesel. In this study, green diesel was produced via a deoxygenation (DO) reaction of ceiba oil under a H₂-free atmosphere over Ni modified red mud-based catalysts, which have been synthesized via a precipitation - deep-deposition assisted autoclave method. The obtained catalyst was further characterized by XRF, XRD, BET, FTIR, TPD-NH₃, FESEM, and TGA. Based on the catalytic activity test, all Ni/RMO _x catalysts facilitated greater DO activity by yielding 83-86% hydrocarbon yield and 70-85% saturated diesel n-(C₁₅ + C₁₇) selectivity. Ni/RMO₃ was the best catalyst for deoxygenizing the ceiba oil owing to the existence of a high acidic strength (12717.3 μmol g^-1) and synergistic interaction between Fe-O and Ni-O species, thereby producing the highest hydrocarbon yield (86%) and n-(C₁₅ + C₁₇) selectivity (85%). According to the reusability study, the Ni/RMO₃ could be reused for up to six consecutive runs with hydrocarbon yields ranging from 53% to 83% and n-(C₁₅ + C₁₇) selectivity ranging from 62% to 83%.