Hydrocarbon fuels from gas phase decarboxylation of hydrolyzed free fatty acid

Weicheng Wang, William L. Roberts, Larry F. Stikeleather

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gas phase decarboxylation of hydrolyzed free fatty acid (FFA) from canola oil has beeninvestigated in two fix-bed reactors by changing reaction parameters such as temperatures,FFA feed rates, and H 2-to-FFA molar ratios. FFA, which contains mostly C 18 aswell as a few C 16, C 20, C 22, and C 24 FFA, was fed into the boiling zone, evaporated, carriedby hydrogen flow at the rate of 0.5-20 ml/min, and reacted with the 5% Pd/C catalystin the reactor. Reactions were conducted atmospherically at 380-450 °C and the products,qualified and quantified through gas chromatography-flame ionization detector(GC-FID), showed mostly n-heptadecane and a few portion of n-C 15, n-C 19, n-C 21, n-C 23 as well as some cracking species. Results showed that FFA conversion increased withincreasing reaction temperatures but decreased with increasing FFA feed rates and H 2-to-FFA molar ratios. The reaction rates were found to decrease with higher temperatureand increase with higher H 2 flow rates. Highly selective heptadecane was achieved byapplying higher temperatures and higher H 2-to-FFA molar ratios. From the results, ascatalyst loading and FFA feed rate were fixed, an optimal reaction temperature of 415 °C as well as H 2-to-FFA molar ratio of 4.16 were presented. These results provided goodbasis for studying the kinetics of decarboxylation process. © 2012 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalJournal of Energy Resources Technology
Volume134
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 21 2012

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation EFRI program under Grant EFRI-093772 and by Department of Energy Applied Research Project Agency-Energy under Grant No. 25A5144.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Fuel Technology
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

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