Issue 75, 2017, Issue in Progress

Fatty acid decarboxylation reaction kinetics and pathway of co-conversion with amino acid on supported iron oxide catalysts

Abstract

Fe2O3/Al-MCM-41 nanocomposite catalysts were designed and fabricated to upgrade microalgae hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL)-derived biocrude and its model compounds (palmitic acid and glutamic acid) in the absence of hydrogen. The Fe2O3/Al-MCM-41 catalysts were prepared by encapsulating Fe2O3 particles on highly stable pure silica MCM-41 and Al-MCM-41. XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption isotherms, XPS, and UV-Vis characterizations of the catalysts revealed that 10–30 nm γ-Fe2O3 particles were well dispersed on the mesoporous support. In the range of 320–350 °C and under subcritical water, palmitic acid conversion was improved by 43–54% by the Fe2O3/Al-MCM-41 catalyst. The overall reaction rate was first order to palmitic acid for non-catalytic and catalytic conversions, and the activation energy was 336.76 kJ mol−1 for Fe2O3/Al-MCM-41. In situ DRIFTS reaction test demonstrated that the initiation temperature for the catalytic decarboxylation of palmitic acid was decreased to 195 °C, and desorption of the produced CO2 occurred at 255 °C. Based on the GC-MS results of the HTL products, the reaction pathway of the binary mixture of palmitic acid and glutamic acid was elucidated, and the chemical origins of amide, pyrrolidinone, hydroxy-butanoic acid, and pentadecane were proposed.

Graphical abstract: Fatty acid decarboxylation reaction kinetics and pathway of co-conversion with amino acid on supported iron oxide catalysts

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Aug 2017
Accepted
22 Sep 2017
First published
06 Oct 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 47279-47287

Fatty acid decarboxylation reaction kinetics and pathway of co-conversion with amino acid on supported iron oxide catalysts

J. Bian, Y. Wang, Q. Zhang, X. Fang, L. Feng and C. Li, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 47279 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA08507A

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