Highly Versatile, Non-noble Metal-Based Catalytic Process for the Production of Green Aromatics and High-Octane Fuel from Bio-Derived Hydrocarbon Mix

Abstract

The present work deals with the value-addition to bio-derived hydrocarbon mix obtained as a side product in biorefinery for petrochemicals and fuel applications. One aspect of this study focused on developing a highly versatile, non-noble metal-based catalytic process to facilitate the production of green aromatics and high-octane fuel from a renewable bio-derived hydrocarbon mix. Considering the availability of various conventional/unconventional feedstocks viz. industrial petroleum naphtha and crude-derived hydrocarbon mix, the catalyst development is also expanded for effective conversion of such feedstocks to produce aromatics. For this, a detailed understanding of the catalyst property-activity relationship has been established with the help of characterization techniques like FTIR, XRD, NH3-TPD, Pyridine-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, HR-TEM, XPS, TGA, etc. The studies revealed promising catalytic activity of 5Zn-2Ga-0.5Ba/H-ZSM-5 to exhibit very high aromatic selectivity (up to 80 %) and high-octane fuel production (>100 RON) from all the feedstocks possessing different hydrocarbon composition. The catalyst showed good repeatability and recyclability at the tested reaction conditions.