The role of Ni species in the deoxygenation of rapeseed oil over NiMo-alumina catalysts

The deoxygenation of rapeseed oil has been studied over sulfided NiMo-alumina catalysts (NiMoS-alumina). The main focus has been on the preparation of catalyst precursors (oxide form of sulfided NiMo-alumina catalysts – NiMoO-alumina) with a different distribution of Ni species in order to contribute to the understanding of the effect of catalyst preparation on the activity/selectivity of NiMoS-alumina catalysts in the deoxygenation of rapeseed oil. To analyze the state of Ni species the NiMoO-alumina catalysts have been characterized by UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrometry (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and XPS. It has been found out that the NiMoO-alumina catalysts with higher population of octahedral nickel species resulted in more active NiMoS-alumina catalysts than those containing higher population of tetrahedral nickel species.

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► NiMo-alumina catalysts were prepared with different distribution of Ni species.
► NiMo-alumina catalysts were tested in the deoxygenation of rapeseed oil.
► Conversion increased with increasing Ni(Oh):Ni(Td) population ratio.
► C18/C17 selectivities ratio increased with decreasing Ni(Oh):Ni(Td) population ratio.