Thermodynamic Equilibrium Analysis of Triolein Hydrodeoxygenation for Green Diesel Production

摘要

The recent trends in biofuel research outcome mainly focused on the conversion of vegetable oil to the value added hydrocarbon fuels. Hydrodeoxygenation is one of the promising route for clean energy production. In this study, triolein was selected as the model compound representing rubber seed and jatropha seed oil to produce straight chain hydrocarbon. The thermodynamic equilibrium analysis was carried out using Aspen HYSYS software to study the thermodynamic interaction between hydrogen to triolein molar ratio, reaction pressure and temperature. The study revealed that thermodynamically, the optimum feed molar ratio of H2 to triolein is at 5:1 and pressure of 70 bar produced high amount of desired products, The selectivity for C_(18) decreases with the increased of temperature, as well as the ratio of C_(17)/C_(18). The by products such as methane and propane are resulted from several side reactions, namely methanation, thermal cracking and reverse water gas shift reaction. This can possibly be minimized by using efficient and effective catalyst design.