Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 92879293

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Fuel purpose hydrotreating of sunower oil on CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst

} Hancsk a,* Mrton Krr a, Sndor Kovcs a, Dnes Kall b, Jeno
a b

Department of MOL Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Pannonia, P.O. Box 158, Veszprm H-8201, Hungary Chemical Research Centre, Institute of Nanochemistry and Catalysis, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 17, Budapest H-1525, Hungary

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The importance of the economical production and usage of new generation biofuels, the so-called bio gas oil (parafns from triglycerides) and the results of the investigation for their productability on the CoMo/ Al2O3 catalyst, which was activated by reduction, are presented. The conversion of triglycerides, the yield of total organic fractions and the target product, furthermore the type and ratio of deoxygenation reactions were determined as a function of process parameters. The advantageous process parameters were found (380 C, 4060 bar, 500600 Nm3/m3 H2/sunower oil ratio, 1.0 h1), where the conversion of triglycerides was 100% and the yield of the target fraction [high parafn containing (>99%) gas oil boiling range product] was relatively high (73.773.9%). The deoxygenation of triglycerides the reduction as well as the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions took place. The yield of the target fractions did not achieve the theoretical values (81.486.5%). That is why it is necessary to separate the target fraction and recirculate the heavy fraction. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 31 March 2010 Received in revised form 10 June 2010 Accepted 24 June 2010 Available online 23 July 2010 Keywords: Sunower oil Hydrotreating CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst Biofuels Bio gas oil

1. Introduction The main reason of the consumption of biofuels within the alternative fuels is the insufcient quantities and availability of energy carriers (primarily the crude oil) and the effort in the transport and transportation sectors to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels which are produced from import crude oil. To achieve these goals, the European Union has created the 2003/30/EC and 2009/28/EC directives. The main purpose of the directives is to promote the use of biofuels in the transport and transportation fuels, with recommended or required quality. Nowadays the research, development and market introduction of second or next generation biofuels is recommended. This is mainly due to the disadvantages of conventional biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol), the demand for better quality of motor fuels (blending components), the wider base of raw materials (climate, topography, soil conditions) and the support by the European Union for the second generation biofuel research and development [COM (2006) 34]. From the biocomponents [ethanol and alcohols with higher carbon number, bio gas oils produced form triglycerides, synthetic (Fischer-Tropsch) gasoils, dimethyl ether, etc.] used as a blending component in diesel fuels in short and medium term the bio gas oils are to be highlighted. The bio gas oil is a mixture of normal and isoparafns having boiling points similar to diesel fraction

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +36 88624313; fax: +36 88624520. E-mail address: hancsokj@almos.uni-pannon.hu (J. Hancsk). 0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.06.107

which can be produced by one or more step catalytic hydrotreating of different natural triglycerides (fatty acid esters, fatty acids, etc.) (Hancsk et al., 2007a,b). According to these the bio gas oils have low sulphur- (65 mg/ kg), nitrogen- (62 mg/kg) and aromatic content (61%), furthermore low olenic double bond containing components (60.2%). So they contain the most valuable components from the viewpoint of performance properties of crude oil originated gas oils which have improved and cleaner ignition, and it results in lower emissions. The triglyceride molecules are converted by the following reactions during the bio gas oil production (Donnis et al., 2009; Huber and Corma, 2007; Liu et al., 2009; da Rocha Filho et al., 1993): (1) full saturation of double bonds (hydrogenation), (2) heteroatom removal  oxygen removal, hydrodeoxygenation (HDO reaction, reduction), decarboxylation, decarbonylation,  removing of other heteroatoms (sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus, metals), (3) different side reactions,  hydrocracking of fatty acid chain of triglyceride molecule,  watergas-shift reaction,  methanization,  cyclization, aromatization, etc. (4) isomerization of n-parafns which are formed during the oxygen removing.

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M. Krr et al. / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 92879293 Table 1 The main properties and fatty acid composition of the applied sunower oil. Properties Kinematic viscosity (40 C), mm2/s Density (15 C), g/cm3 Acid number, mg KOH/g Iodine number, g I2/100 g Carbon residue, % Flash point, C Cold lter plugging point, C Fatty acid composition,a % C14:0 C16:0 C18:0 C18:1 C18:2 C18:3 C20:0 C20:1 C22:0 Others Calculated oxygen content, %
a

In the last couple of years intensive research and development efforts were started to nd catalytic routes of converting natural triglyceride-containing feedstocks (primarily different vegetable oils) into fuels having boiling points similar to diesel fraction. The rst research way is (Bezergianni and Kalogianni, 2009; Gus ka et al., 2009; imc ek mao et al., 1989; Krr et al., 2010; Kubic et al., 2009) the investigation of the applicability of a transition metal/metals containing heteroatom (sulphur and nitrogen) removal catalyst which is from the petroleum industry or expediently modied for the oxygen removing reaction (HDO, hydrodeoxygenation, reduction). kova et al., 2005; Lestari et al., The other research way is (Kubic 2008; Mki-Arvela et al., 2008; Simakova et al., 2009) the investigation of the decarboxylation or decarbonylation reaction route on supported noble metal catalysts (Pd or Pt/activated carbon). Based on the current trends (in the view of industrial implementation) the oxygen removal is favorable with HDO reaction, but the information is little and incomplete. There are only a few publications (Huber et al., 2007; Iki et al., 2006; Kubicka et al., 2008; Marker et al., 2009) where the authors discuss the effect of the process parameters on the ratio of the oxygen removal reactions and the yield and the composition and properties of the obtained products. Generally the bimetallic aluminium oxide supported catalysts in sulphided form (usually NiMo/Al2O3 and less CoMo/Al2O3) were investigated for the HDO reaction (Craig and Sorevan, 1991; Donnis et al., 2009; Gusmao et al., 1989; Krr et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2009). However, about the application of the non-sulphided form metallic (e.g. Ni/Al2O3 or Ni/SiO2) (Gusmao et al., 1989; Kubicka et al., 2007) or bimetallic (S enol et al., 2005) catalyst (only pre-treated in hydrogen ow) there is little or no information available. According to these, our aim was to investigate the applicability of an expediently selected gasoil hydrodesulphurization CoMo/ Al2O3 catalyst having good sulphur removal activity (from 1% sulphur content to <10 mg S/kg) for the conversion of specially pretreated Hungarian sunower oil to produce motor fuels. The effect of the process parameters (temperature, pressure, LHSV, H2/sunower oil volume ratio) on the triglyceride-conversion, the yield of the total organic products and target products, furthermore the degree and type of the deoxygenation reaction were also investigated. 2. Experimental 2.1. Feedstocks The feedstock of the hydrotreating experiments was conventional sunower oil pressed form Hungarian sunower seed and it was properly pre-treated (ltered). Its important properties are summarized in Table 1. The catalyst was an expediently chosen and commercial CoMo/ Al2O3 catalyst. The CoO-content of the catalyst was 2.9%, the MoO3content was 13.5% and the BET surface area was 193 m2/g. The catalyst was pre-treated in situ before the experiments. Through the pre-treatment we increased the temperature of the catalyst in hydrogen ow with 25 C/h to 400 C, then we held the temperature at 400 C for 2 h at a hydrogen gas ow-rate of 40 dm3/h. 2.2. Experimental apparatus and product separation The experimental tests were carried out in one of the measure sections of a high pressure reactor system containing two ow reactors (isothermal catalyst volume: 100 cm3) (Nagy et al., 2007). The reactor system contained all the equipment and devices applied in the reactor system of a hydrotreating plant. The appara-

Value 31.55 0.9182 1.8 132 0.16 >250 32 0.09 6.33 3.45 21.64 67.78 0.09 0.23 0.13 0.22 0.04 10.9

Standard methods EN ISO 3104:1996 EN EN EN EN EN EN ISO 3675:2000 14104:2004 14111:2004 ISO 10370:1997 ISO 2719:2003 116:1999

EN ISO 5509:2000; EN 14103:2004

The rst number represents the number of carbon atoms and the second means the number of double bonds in the molecule.

tus is suitable for keeping the major process parameters with such precision at least as used in the industry. The product mixtures obtained from the hydrotreating of sunower oil were separated to gas phase, water and organic phase. The gas phase obtained from the separator of the reactor system contained carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, propane, the hydrogen-sulphide and ammonia which evolved during the heteroatom removal of sunower oil, furthermore the lighter hydrocarbons (C1C4 as valuable by-products) which evolved during the hydrocracking reactions. The liquid product mixtures obtained from the separator of the reactor system contained water, hydrocarbons and oxygen containing compounds. After the separation of the water we obtained the light (C5C9) hydrocarbons (gasoline boiling range) from the organic fraction by distillation up to 180 C. The residue of the atmospheric distillation was separated by vacuum distillation into the target product (gas oil boiling range fraction, mainly C11C19 hydrocarbons) and the residue. The residue contained the unconverted triglycerides, the evolved and unconverted diglycerides and monoglycerides, fatty acids, esters, which evolved as intermediate products or were originally in the feedstock.

2.3. Process parameters The range of the applied process parameters based on our preexperimental results were the following: temperature 300 380 C, total pressure 2080 bar, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV): 1.03.0 h1 and H2/sunower oil volume ratio: 200 800 Nm3/m3.

2.4. Analytical methods The properties of the sunower oil feedstock were measured according to standard methods (Table 1). The cetane number and the cold lter plugging point of the products was determined according to ASTM D4737 and to EN 116:1999 standards, respectively. The composition of the total organic products, obtained from the catalytic conversion of the triglycerides were determined by high temperature gas chromatograph (Shimadzu 2010 GC on

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special high temperature column) on the following measurement parameters:  Zebron DB-1HT (30 m 0.32 mm 0.1 lm) column,  Programmed Temperature Vaporization (PTV) injector (temperature program: 100 C ? 400 C 30 C/min heating rate),  oven temperature program: 40 C (4 min) ? 240 C, 15 C/min heating rate ? 400 C 8 C/min heating rate, then 11 min on 400 C,  ame ionization (FID) detector (400 C),  carrier: H2 (5.0). The composition of the gas products were determined by gas chromatograph (Trace GC Thermo Finnigan) with thermal conductivity detector (TCD) [column: Supelco Carboxen 1006 Plot (30 m 0.32 mm)] on the following temperature program: 35 C ? 200 C, 5 C/min heating rate. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Conversions and product yields and their evaluation Based on the experimental results it can be concluded that the conversion of triglycerides signicantly increased with increasing the strictness of the process parameters namely increasing the temperature and pressure and decreasing the LHSV. The conversion of triglycerides was 100% at 380 C, LHSV: 1.0 h1, H2/sunower oil volume ratio: 500600 Nm3/m3 and in the whole investigated pressure range so the conversion of sunower oil was complete (Fig. 1A).

The triglyceride-conversion changed according to maximum curve as a function of H2/sunower oil volume ratio (Fig. 1B) at all of the investigated temperatures (the maximum of the curves was at 500600 Nm3/m3 H2/sunower oil ratio). This may be due to a too high rate of H2/sunower oil volume ratio because the hydrogen overow swept the part of the triglyceride molecules from the catalyst surface and therefore reduced the value of the conversion. If the H2/sunower oil volume ratio is too small then the theoretically required (chemical) hydrogen is not (or just) enough to realize the HDO reaction and this decreased the ratio of this reaction. In addition, these results also suggest that the deoxygenation did not shift towards the decarboxylation, but reduced the conversion rate. Through the conversion of triglycerides to bio gas oil gaseous products (propane, COx, NH3, H2S, other C1C4 hydrocarbons), aqueous phase and total organic products (hydrocarbons, alkyl-esters, unconverted or evolved carboxylic acids, monolycerides, diglycerides, unconverted triglycerides and/or their hydrogenated derivates, etc.) are formed. The gaseous products and the evolved water reduce the yield of the total organic products, so the theoretical value of the yield of the total organic products cannot be 100%. The yield of the total organic products decreased with increasing temperature and pressure and decreasing LHSV (so with increasing the strictness of the process parameters) (Fig. 2A). The reason for this is the increasing rate of deoxygenation and the accompanying propylene splitting-off (formation of propane after hydrogenation) and additionally in smaller quantities the increasing amount of other products obtained from side reactions. It is important to note that the effect of pressure was signicantly lower on the yield of the total organic products than the temperature or the LHSV on

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H2 /sunflower oil volume ratio, Nm 3/m3

Fig. 2. The yield of total organic product (broken line) and the yield of the target product (continuous line) as a function of the process parameters (LHSV: 1.0 h1; A: H2/sunower oil volume ratio: 600 Nm3/m3; B: P: 80 bar).

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C17 and C18 paraffin content, %

the applied catalyst in the range of the investigated process parameters. The yield of the total organic products changed according to minimum curve as a function of H2/sunower oil volume ratio at the investigated temperatures (Fig. 2B). The reason is that in case of too little and too much H2/sunower oil volume ratio the conversion of the triglycerides is less that is why the triglycerides remain in the total organic product mixture to increase its amount. Examining the tendency of the results the minimum of the curves were at about 600 Nm3/m3. This coincides with the maximum value of the triglyceride-conversion observed during examination. The theoretical value of the yield of the gas oil boiling range target fraction (mainly C11C19-parafns) is 81.486.5% (related to the weight of the feedstock) depending on the deoxygenation way (reaction route) in case of the conversion of applied sunower oil to bio gas oil. (We calculated these values based on the fatty acid composition of the sunower oil.) According to the results of our experiments it was concluded that the yield of the target fraction increased with increasing the temperature and decreasing the LHSV in case of the applied process parameters, i.e. higher conversion of triglycerides also resulted in a greater yield of the target fraction (Fig. 2A). At low temperatures (300 and 320 C) the yield of the target fraction signicantly increased with increasing the pressure, but at 340 C and above it changed according to maximum curve. This may be due to the fact that the cracking reaction took place at higher degree at higher temperature and especially at the highest investigated pressure (80 bar). Furthermore the decarboxylation/decarbonylation took place at higher degree, which produced lower theoretical yield than the reduction. (We are going to present these experiences in detail further on.) The yield of the target fraction changed according to maximum curve as a function of H2/sunower oil volume ratio (Fig. 2B) similarly to the change of triglyceride-conversion and to the reasons presented there. The advantageous values of H2/sunower oil volume ratio were at 500600 Nm3/m3 in the range of the investigated temperature. Summarizing the previous results it can be concluded that on the investigated CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst to achieve the high yield of the target fraction the advantageous process parameters were the following: temperature: 380 C, pressure: 4060 bar, H2/sunower oil volume ratio: 500600 Nm3/m3, LHSV: 1.0 h1. 3.2. Deoxygenation reaction pathways and their ratios There are three possible reaction pathways for the removal of oxygen from triglycerides. There is the reduction (hydrodeoxygeantion), the decarboxylation and the decarbonylation. During the reduction the triglycerides are converted into n-parafns which have the same carbon number as the fatty acid of the triglyceride, furthermore during the decarboxylation and decarbonylation the carbon number of the produced parafns is lower by one than the fatty acid of the triglyceride molecule. So it is determinable which oxygen removal route takes place (reduction or decarboxylation/decarbonylation) by the knowledge of the parafn composition with different carbon number of product mixtures. However, to determine that the deoxygenation takes place whether by decarboxylation or by decarbonylation it is not sufcient to determine the carbon number distribution of the target fraction but we must know the amount of the originated gases (CO and CO2) in each side reaction and the exact amount of water. This is difcult because outside the main reactions other (gaseous) reactions (water gas shift, methanization) take place on the investigated catalyst and also because of these reaction products (it cannot be achieved on the investigated catalyst and the applied process parameters). As the carbon number of the fatty acids of the triglycerides was mainly ($93%) 18 in the applied sunower

oil (and it is known that the sunower oil triglycerides do not contain C17 fatty acids from which C16-parafns could be formed), that is why we present only the results which were obtained from the investigation of the ratio of C17- and C18-parafns in the total organic fraction and the investigation of the deoxygenation ratio by reduction and decarboxylation/decarbonylation (so the C18/C17parafn ratio). Based on the experimental results we concluded that the C18parafn content of the total organic products similarly to those we observed in the investigation of target fraction yield changing increased with increasing the temperature and decreasing the LHSV, namely the deoxygenation by reduction was larger. The C18-parafn content of the total organic products at lower temperatures (300 and 320 C) increased with increasing the pressure and at 340 C and above changed according to maximum curve as a function of pressure. This may be due to the increasing enaction of hydrocracking reactions at higher pressure, which we previously mentioned. The C18-parafn content of the total organic products changed according to maximum curve as a function of H2/sunower oil volume ratio (Fig. 3B); the maximum of the curves was at 500600 Nm3/m3 H2/sunower oil. The C17-parafn content of the total organic products increased with increasing the temperature and decreasing the liquid hourly space velocity (Fig. 3A). The reason of this is the higher degree of decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions. The concentration of C17-parafns, which were produced during the decarboxylation/ decarbonylation reactions, decreased in the total organic products with increasing the pressure. The possible reason could be that as the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions are molar number increasing reactions (in case of decarboxylation of saturated triglyceride 4 mol reagent is converted 7 mol products, while in

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Fig. 3. The concentration of C17-parafns (broken line) and C18-parafns (continuous line) in total organic product as a function of the process parameters (LHSV: 1.0 h1; A: H2/sunower oil volume ratio: 600 Nm3/m3; B: P: 80 bar).

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case of the decarbonylation of saturated triglyceride 7 mol reagents are converted to 10 mol products), the increase of the pressure has an unfavorable effect on these reactions. The C17-parafn content of the total organic products as a function of H2/sunower oil volume ratio changed only in 1 absolute% (Fig. 3B), therefore clean conclusions cannot be given from these results. Based on the trends it makes it likely that in case of lower H2/sunower oil ratio based on the type of reaction (the chemical hydrogen demand of the decarboxylation is in case of saturated triglycerides is 3 mol, while the hydrogen demand of decarbonylation is only 6 mol), the estimated higher C17-content of the total organic products was not realized. So, with the decreasing of the H2/sunower oil volume ratio the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions did not come in focus, but as we presented it earlier the conversion of the triglycerides decreased. The change of the share of the different deoxygenations route (reduction and decarboxylation/decarbonylation) as a function of process parameters is well-characterized with the ratio of the concentrations of C17- and C18-parafns in the total organic products. We concluded that the ratio of C17/C18-parafns decreased in the total organic products (Fig. 4A) with increasing the temperature (other parameters are kept constant), so the ratio of the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions increased in correlation to the reduction (HDO reaction) on the investigated catalyst and in the applied process parameter range. The decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions were forced back (less C17-parafn formed), while the deoxygenation with reduction came in front with increasing the pressure. The possible reason is presented earlier at the forming of C17-parafns the decline of the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reaction with increasing the pressure. The ratio of C17/C18-parafn concentration in the total organic products slightly increased in the investigated range of process parameters

(Fig. 4B). In the case of the lowest investigated H2/sunower oil ratio (200 Nm3/m3), the decarboxylation/decarbonylation reactions slightly came to the front, but they were behind the estimated value based on the stoichiometry of the possible deoxygenation reactions. 3.3. Formulation of methane During the deoxygenation of the triglycerides as already mentioned some liquid and gas phase reactions can take place as well. One of the most important is the methanization. Although the formation of methane is relatively low during the catalytic conversion, but the methane (GHG gas) is environmentally one of the most disadvantageous products of this technology. The reason is that the global warming potential (GWP) of the methane is 23 times greater than the GWP of carbon-dioxide (Houghton et al., 2001). Therefore a slight reduction in the formation of methane can signicantly improve the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of the product through the whole life cycle. The reason of the further investigation of methane formulation was the amount of hydrogen which reacts with the carbon-oxides is commensurable stoichiometrically with the used hydrogen gas during deoxygenation, so the formulation of methane (from COx and H2) increases the hydrogen demand of the technology. Therefore it is benecial to know what methane formulation activity the investigated catalyst has and how this activity can be reduced at conditions of the heterogencatalytic conversion (if possible), also how to change this as a function of process parameters. Based on the results we observed that the methanization reactions took place in every investigated process parameter on the applied CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst. The concentrations of the formed methane in the gaseous product were below 6% in every case, also the methane forming activity of the investigated catalyst was not too signicant. Furthermore the concentration of methane in the gas product signicantly increased with increasing temperature and pressure and decreasing LHSV and did not change signicantly with the alteration of H2/sunower volume ratio, also in case of higher conversion of triglycerides the gaseous product contained methane in higher concentration. 3.4. Comparison of results of reduced and pre-sulphided CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst During another experiment the previously applied catalyst was pre-sulphided before the experiments and we mixed 1000 mg S/kg dimethyl-disulphide to the feedstock to keep the sulphided form of the catalyst. This compound decomposes easily at the applied process parameters. Based on these experimental results we concluded that the advantageous process parameters were milder than when we applied the reduced catalyst (340360 C; 20 40 bar; 1.0 h1; 600 Nm3/m3 H2/sunower oil ratio). In case of applying the pre-sulphided catalyst the yield of the target fractions was 58 abs% higher. We concluded that in every case the decarboxylation/decarbonylation enacted in a higher rate than the deoxygenation by reduction (ratio of C17/C18-parafn concentration: <1) and consequently the formation of CO2 and CO, and so the loss of the feedstock is higher, additionally the concentration of isoparafns in the target fractions was low (<2%). Besides the disadvantages resulting from the catalytic properties of the pre-sulphided catalyst the application of pre-sulphidation also reduces the economy of the technology due to the following reasons:  additional cost of the sulphidation agent, storage tank and pump, furthermore the additional equipment,  because of the formation of mercaptans some mg/kg of sulphur may remain in the product,

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Table 2 The main results obtained from the conversion of sunower oil at the investigated temperature range and at advantageous other process parameters (4060 bar, 600 Nm3/m3 H2/ sunower oil ratio, 1.0 h1). Process parameter/properties Results Temperature, C 300 Conversion Gaseous product yield, % Water yield, % Total organic product yield, % Thereof C5C10 hydrocarbons Target fraction Residue Composition of total organic product C14--parafns C15-parafns C16-parafns C17-parafns C18-parafns C19+-parafns Carboxylic acids, alkyl-esters Diglycerides Triglycerides Ratio of i/n-parafns in target fraction Performance properties of target fraction Cetane number CFPP, C CFPP: cold lter plugging point. 58.363.9 4.24.5 3.53.9 92.793.3 0.10.1 25.531.0 61.667.7 0.20.5 0.10.2 0.61.9 1.32.0 24.927.0 0.30.9 24.526.7 2.62.7 38.944.7 0.030.08 103104 2728 320 79.279.3 5.35.6 5.75.9 90.490.4 0.00.1 40.047.0 43.450.3 0.10.4 0.20.2 0.42.0 2.23.8 40.444.1 0.10.7 25.129.1 2.42.9 22.923 0.040.12 102104 2427 340 84.289.3 6.56.6 7.48.0 87.688.3 0.20.2 56.556.8 30.931.3 0.40.5 0.20.4 3.84.6 3.24.9 55.256 1.82.3 14.118.4 1.82.4 12.317.9 0.100.12 99102 1820 360 94.398.3 7.88.2 9.710.2 84.185 0.50.6 64.668 15.519.9 1.11.2 0.30.4 4.95 5.67.9 61.862.3 3.03.2 12.419.5 1.21.7 26.7 0.240.32 9297 812 380 100100 10.210.5 9.09.1 83.483.5 0.81.0 72.773.1 9.59.8 2.12.5 0.70.9 6.26.3 9.311.7 66.970.3 4.67.3 4.46.6 0.10.2 0.00.0 0.450.54 8789 14

 the sulphidation agent (H2S) must be removed from the products and the sulphur must be recovered from the H2S,  corrosive effects of H2S. 4. Conclusions Summarizing the most important results (Table 2) obtained at the advantageous process parameters clearly demonstrate that the selected CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst is suitable for the conversion of sunower oil to high normal and isoparafn containing target fraction (bio gas oil). The cetane numbers of the target fractions were signicantly higher than the specied limit of the diesel fuel (EN 590:2009 standard: 51) and their cold lter plugging point allow the blending of the product in 530% into gasoils (temperate climates, Grade A) without applying ow improver additives. These observations were conrmed by the results of a long time (400 h) experiment. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the nancial support of the National Ofce for Research and Technology (NKTH), Hungary (nyos Jedlik Programme, No. A2-2006-0034) and the Chemical Engineering Institute, University of Pannonia. References
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