High quality diesel-range alkanes production via a single-step hydrotreatment of vegetable oil over Ni/zeolite catalyst

•An economic single-step hydrotreatment of lipids for iso-alkanes was devised.•100% alkane selectivity and 86.5% isomerization selectivity were obtained.•The effect of the support and the Ni loading amount were investigated.•The detailed pathway of the single-step hydrotreatment was proposed and discussed.

A single-step hydrotreatment of vegetable oil to produce high quality diesel-ranged alkanes over Ni/zeolite catalyst is devised. The Ni/zeolite catalysts prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method using SAPO-11, ZSM-5, ZSM-22, ZSM-23 and Beta zeolites as supports are evaluated in this single-step hydrotreatment process. The effects of the support and the metal loading amount are studied from the catalytic performance and characterization results obtained by techniques such as XRD, Physisorption, NH3-TPD and Pyridine-IR. Over the 8 wt%Ni/SAPO-11 catalyst, 100% conversion of soybean oil is obtained at 370 °C, 4 MPa and 1 h−1, with an organic liquid yield of 74.8% which is nearly 90% of the maximum theoretical liquid yield. In the organic products, the alkane selectivity is 100%, and more than 85% isomerization selectivity is achieved. In order to learn the detailed scheme of the single-step hydrotreatment process, the intermediates have been analyzed from which reaction pathways are proposed and discussed.

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