Catalytic cracking of Swida wilsoniana oil for hydrocarbon biofuel over Cu-modified ZSM-5 zeolite

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 218; pp. 59 - 66
• Main Authors: Li, Changzhu, Ma, Jiangshan, Xiao, Zhihong, Hector, Stanton B., Liu, Rukuan, Zuo, Shuangmiao, Xie, Xinfeng, Zhang, Aihua, Wu, Hong, Liu, Qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.04.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Ammonia; Biodiesel fuels; Biofuels; Catalysts; Catalytic cracking; Crystal structure; Cu-modified ZSM-5; Diffraction; Hydrocarbon biofuels; Hydrocarbons; Oil; Physical properties; Physicochemical properties; Regeneration; Swida wilsoniana oil; Transmission electron microscopy; X-ray diffraction; Zeolites; Hydrocarbon biofuels; Cu-modified ZSM-5; Swida wilsoniana oil; Catalytic cracking
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2018.01.026

Catalytic cracking of Swida wilsoniana oil over non-catalyst and various Cu-modified ZSM-5 catalysts doped with different concentration of Cu (0, 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt%) was studied. The physicochemical properties of the prepared catalysts were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) model, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH3-TPD) analysis. Results showed that the introduction of Cu did not change the crystalline structure of ZSM-5 and CuO might deposit on the surface or inside the pores. The numbers of ZSM-5 total acidic sites were increased after it was loaded with 5 wt% and 10 wt% concentration of Cu. The overall hydrocarbon biofuels yields obtained from Cu-modified ZSM-5 catalysts were improved relative to parent ZSM-5. Determination of composition of the hydrocarbon biofuels showed that the hydrocarbon fractions were the main components produced. The optimum Cu concentration used for ZSM-5 modification was 10 wt%, which obtained the highest hydrocarbon biofuels yield (68.20 wt%) and percentage of hydrocarbon fractions content (89.07 wt%). The reuse of Cu-modified ZSM-5 catalysts results showed acceptable levels of reusability after three times regeneration. In addition, the physical properties of the Cu-modified ZSM-5 catalysts produced hydrocarbon biofuels were improved compared to non-catalytic cracking of S. wilsoniana oil. This work showed that the newly developed 10 wt% concentration Cu-modified ZSM-5 was an efficient catalyst for cracking of S. wilsoniana oil for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels.