Effective hydrodeoxygenation of palmitic acid to diesel-like hydrocarbons over MoO 2 /CNTs catalyst

The liquid-phase deoxygenation reaction of palmitic acid has been investigated in a batch reactor over carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-supported MoO2 and Pd catalysts under hydrogen atmosphere. The results showed that palmitic acid can be converted completely at 220 °C on MoO2/CNTs catalyst with high hexadecane selectivity (92.2%). The H2 pressure of the reaction can control the product׳s selectivity. Compared with noble metal Pd-based catalyst, MoO2-based catalyst is a much better catalyst because of its high activity, selectivity, stability and low cost. Product distribution revealed that Pd offered high selectivity for pentadecane, whereas MoO2 showed excellent selectivity for hexadecane, which showed more favorable atom efficiency. Therefore, the MoO2/CNTs catalyst can be regarded as an attractive candidate for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of long-chain fatty acids to produce high-grade transportation biofuels.