Preparation of Zirconium Nitride supported on SiO2 Catalyst for Vegetable Oil Conversion

Abstract

Hydrocracking of crude palm oil (CPO) to produce biofuels was conducted over zirconium nitride supported on SiO2 (SiO2/ZrN) catalyst. SiO2/ZrN was prepared by nitriding the SiO2/Zr at 600 C for 3 hrs under NH3 gas on the cylindrical reactor. SiO2/ZrN exhibited a surface acidity of 0.7132 mmol pyridine g‒1 with a surface area of 96 m2 g‒1, forming predominant mesopores on the catalyst. EDS- mapping analysis showed that the ZrN species exhibited a highly distributed on the SiO2 surface. CPO hydrocracking was conducted at a temperature of 500 C for 1 hr, with a CPO flow rate of 0.02 L min‒1 and H2 flow rate of 0.03 L min‒1. The study revealed that the SiO2/ZrN successfully afforded a CPO conversion up to 94.98 wt.%, a liquid yield of 50.40 wt.%, with a low residue and coke formation. This catalyst promoted high selectivity towards bio-jet up to 72.95 wt.%.