Catalytic Production of Renewable Diesel in High-Temperature Water and Potential Integration with a Protein Isolation Proces

Nickel catalysts with a Ni loading of 20 wt.% were synthesized and tested for activity towards the production of hydrocarbons from an aqueous emulsion of canola oil (20 wt.%). This oil loading was chosen to simulate the composition of the typical extract from the aqueous extraction of oil seeds currently being explored as an alternative to the conventional solvent extraction in the edible oil industry. Moderate yield (>50%) and selectivity (~70%) of hydrocarbons within the diesel range were obtained within 12h of reaction at 315 ° C under an initial hydrogen headspace pressure at 1.95MPa. It was also shown that a prolonged experimental run at 305 ° C can result in near-complete conversion of triglyceride oil into diesel-range hydrocarbons (70%) and oxygenates (9%) with selectivity ~80%. The disappearance of stearic acid obeyed first order behavior and an activation energy of 305 kJ/mole was calculated.