Article pubs.acs.org/EF
Toward Diesel Production from Karanja Oil Hydrotreating over CoMo and NiMo Catalysts Mahesh R. Nimkarde and Prakash D. Vaidya* Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, India ABSTRACT: Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) or green diesel can be considered as a promising second-generation biofuel. Non-edible karanja oil (Pongamia pinnata) represents a candidate feedstock for HVO production. In the present work, karanja oil was hydrotreated at high temperatures (573−653 K) and high pressures (1.5−3.5 MPa) over sulfided CoMo and NiMo catalysts supported on Al2O3 in a fixed-bed reactor. A paraffin mixture (mainly C15−C18 n-paraffins) was produced from karanja oil, which is consistent with the effectiveness of Co/Ni and Mo for the hydroprocessing reactions. Smaller hydrocarbons (
