Catalytic hydrocracking of Kapuk seed oil (Ceiba pentandra) to produce biofuel using Zn-Mo supported HZSM-5 catalyst

In the present paper Kapuk seed oil (KSO) was considered as a potential biofuel for alternative fuel from inedible oil. Catalytic hydrocracking of Kapuk seed oil using Zn-Mo supported on the HZSM-5 catalyst in a slurry pressure batch reactor at various temperature with reactor pressure in range 10-15 bar. The Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation. The physicochemical properties of the catalyst were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The best catalyst performance on catalytic hydrocracking of KSO using Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 (Si/Al = 25) with loading 2.92%wt for Zn and 7.55%wt for Mo. It displayed the highest hydrocarbon content decarboxylation and/or decarbonylation were 35.51 area% of n-paraffins and the highest content for gasoil-range alkanes was 17.24 area% at 400⁰C. The liquid product predominant is n-C₁₅, and the second component is n-C₁₇. The catalyst Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 was helpful for the catalytic hydrocracking of KSO for hydrocarbon biofuel production.