Highly Active Ni Nanocatalysts Derived from Metal–Organic Framework (Ni-BDC) Boosted Deoxygenation and Cracking of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

To enhance deoxygenation and cracking of fatty acid methyl esters in jet fuel production, an efficient bifunctional catalyst was synthesized through pyrolyzing Ni-based metal–organic frameworks (Ni-BDC). High-temperature pyrolysis destroyed coordinated Ni–O bonds in the Ni-BDC structure to generate active Ni nanoparticles anchored to carbon, which enhanced Lewis acidity and deoxygenation ability. The strong acidity of catalyst pyrolyzed at 600 °C increased from 0 to 0.835 mmol/g, whereas the ratio of Lewis to Brønsted acid increased from 8.34 to 24.71. Therefore, the selectivity of jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons in methyl palmitate conversion over Ni-BDC-600 catalyst reached 83.52%, which was higher than that (68.24%) of Ni-BDC catalyst. The Ni-BDC-600 catalyst also exhibited a high selectivity of 75.56% for the conversion of microalgal biodiesel into jet fuel.