Hydrocracking process of coconut oil using Ni-Zn/HZSM-5 catalyst for hydrocarbon biofuel production

Renewable hydrocarbon biofuel was produced by hydrocracking of coconut oil using a bifunctional catalyst. Hydrocarbon biofuel is promising for production of future fuels from vegetable oil. The advantage of the hydrocracking is the formation of hydrocarbon biofuel products at the conventional fuel range. The purpose of this work is to produce hydrocarbon biofuel by hydrocracking of coconut oil using the catalyst of Ni-Zn/HZSM-5. The processes of hydrocracking processes were performed in a vessel reactor by stirring with magnetically at 350 °C and the reaction pressure of 15 bar for 2 h under flowing H2 with Ni-Zn/HZSM-5 catalyst. The effect of Ni-Zn/HZSM-5 catalyst was evaluated by determining the composition of products (hydrocarbon biofuel). The hydrocarbon biofuel was determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The GC-MS results of hydrocarbon biofuel show the aliphatic compounds in the range C₁₂-C₂₂. The presence of C₁₇-C₁₈ in the hydrocarbon biofuel was relatively low. Hydrocarbon biofuel composition consists of 0.11 cycloparaffins, 5.33 normal paraffins, 7.85 olefin, and 0.08 aromatics based on area%. The total amount of detected oxygenated compounds was 86.63 area% carboxylic acid. These compounds are responsible for the low quality of the hydrocarbon biofuel. However, the reaction must be carried out at above 350 °C to eliminate the oxygenated compounds in the hydrocarbon biofuel, as an important step to replace non-renewable fossil fuels.