Sustainable aviation fuel from hydroconversion of safflower oil over NiMo/Al2O3 and Pt-ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts

Abstract

This article presents the experiments on the hydroconversion of mixtures of safflower oil (SO) mixed with straight run gas oil (SRGO) in a different ratio as an alternative to obtain biojet. The research was conducted in two stages; the first stage a mixture of SO/SRGO was subjected hydrotreating at 350 °C, 380 °C, 80 bar, LHSV 1 h−1 and 1.5 h−1, over the sulfided NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst, while in the second stage a mixture of SO/SRGO which was already hydrotreated was subjected to a hydroisomerization at 280 °C, LHSV 1 h−1, P = 30 bar, over the sulfided Pt-ZrO2/Al2O3 catalyst. It was studied the influence of SO/SRGO ratio and hydroconversion conditions on the biojet quality produced, compared with characteristics required by standard ASTM D1655. The best condition for obtaining the biojet were 380 °C, 80 bar, LHSV 1 h−1 for hydrotreating followed by hydroisomerization of 20% SO in the mixture at 280 °C, LHSV 1 h−1, P = 30 bar.