Producing hydrocarbons for green diesel and jet fuel formulation from palm kernel fat over Pd/C

• The palmist oil and hydrolyzed palmist oil were used in hydrodeoxygenation.
• The process was performed over Pd/C and soft experimental conditions were used.
• The conversions for palmist and hydrolyzed palmist were 87 and 96%, respectively.
• Linear saturated hydrocarbons were obtained for drop-in biofuels formulation.
• The synthesized hydrocarbons presented adequate properties for aviation biofuels.

ABSTRACTDrop-in fuels have attracted great interest for automotive and aeronautical use. In this work, bio-hydrocarbons were obtained from palm kernel oil (palmist oil) within the distillation range of diesel and jet fuel. Green fuels were produced through the hydrodeoxygenation of palmist fat and its hydrolyzed product by using Pd/C as a catalyst. The process is efficient for hydrodeoxygenation with conversions of up to 96% after 5 h of reaction, at 10 bar of H2 pressure and 300 °C, which are mild conditions compared with the majority of the processes described in the literature. The hydroprocessing products were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The freezing temperatures of the biofuels were determined by DSC. Up to 5% deoxygenation products can be used in commercial jet fuel without compromising the cold fuel properties.

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