Hydrodeoxygenation of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) over natural zeolite-supported nickel phosphide catalyst: Insight into Ni/P effect

Petroleum fuel is the primary source of energy today. Its use often causes environmental problems, one of them SOx gas emissions. Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) is a by-product of crude palm oil refining and has great promise to be developed as a renewable energy source. This research investigates the effect of Ni/P catalyst ratios impregnated by activated natural zeolite as solid support to properties and performance of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of PFAD to green diesel. The HDO reaction was performed by varying Ni/P at a temperature of 350 °C for 2 h, and 40 bar H2 pressure. The highest conversion and selectivity of PFAD to green diesel are obtained at a ratio of NiP(2:1)/NZ0.5 catalyst.