Modelling and simulation of hydrotreating of palm oil components to obtain green diesel

José Ricardo Sodré*, Meliza Plazas-González, Carlos Alberto Guerrero-Fajardo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This work presents a model for hydrotreating of palm oil components to produce green diesel. The main reactions of triglycerides and fat acids in the presence of a NiMo/γAl2O3 catalyst are shown, especially cracking of triglycerides, hydrogenation, decarboxylation, decarbonylation and fat acid reduction. These reactions were modelled using Aspen Plus® 7.3 software, where an equilibrium reactor was used to predict the reaction behavior. The influence of reactor pressure, temperature and H2/oil molar ratio was analyzed. The results showed that the optimized conditions are obtained at average pressure from 30 bar to 60 bar, temperature between 300 °C and 400 °C, and H2/oil molar ratio of 20.1. In the separation system the operating conditions adopted were 40 bar, 200 °C in the first plate and 1.013 bar, 60 °C in the second plate, resulting in green diesel purity of 97%. High levels of n-C18 and n-C16 production were attained, compared with other methods.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)301-308
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Cleaner Production
Volume184
Early online date26 Feb 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 May 2018

Keywords

  • Decarbonylation
  • Decarboxylation
  • Green diesel
  • Hydrotreating
  • Reduction

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Modelling and simulation of hydrotreating of palm oil components to obtain green diesel'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this