Kinetic Modeling of Hydrodeoxygenation of Methyl Oleate over Solid Catalysts to Green Diesel from First Principles

• Main Author: NAZERI, SITI NURNAJWA
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6131/1/SITI%20NURNAJWA%20NAZERI_12197.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6131/

This dissertation covers the activities and findings of Final Year Project (FYP) I & II. FYP I activities are mainly on the literature research, elucidation of reaction mechanisms and development of kinetic models. FYP II on the other hands is actually the continuation of the FYP I activities. In clear picture, FYP II covers the simulation of the developed kinetic models using MATLAB software, graphing and tabulation of results and finally, the analysis of the findings. The analysis is concluded based on the related research papers that had been produced by many scholars. Current development of green diesel production was focusing on the triglycerides as the feedstock. There is no study on the green diesel production using monoglyceride. Because of that, the intent of this paper is to study the trend and variat ion of optimal operating temperature and initial hydrogen pressure at which reaction route can efficiently hydroconvert methyl oleate, an example of monoglyceride. The research provides insights for future optimal operation and industrial scaling by using monoglyceride as the feedstock to produce green diesel. The parameters to be identified at the end of the project are methyl oleate conversion, selectivity towards formation of through hydrodeoxygenation reaction (to suppress decarboxylation and decarbonylation), yield for all of the components involved in the conversion, optimum temperature and optimum pressure within 2 hours reaction time. The project has undergone few stages to achieve the objectives. The stages involved are literature study, elucidation of reaction mechanisms, derivation of rate expressions, pre-exponential factors calculations, reactor model development from first principles and finally, simulation of the model equations using MATLAB software. Overall, the project has achieved all of the objectives, with optimum operating temperature of 270 ⁰C, pressure of 50 bar in 2 hours reaction time, for 100 % maximum methyl oleate conversion forming 79 mol% of maximum octadecane yield.