Hydrocarbon chemicals from hydrothermal processing of renewable oils over HZSM-5

We used the hydrothermal catalytic reaction (400 ℃, 200 bar, 180 min) of renewable triglyceride feedstocks over zeolite HZSM-5 to produce hydrocarbons. Crude algal oil, cold-pressed coconut oil, peanut oil, and lard were converted into aromatics, alkanes, and fuel gases in varying yields and proportions. The most abundant liquid products from coconut oil, peanut oil, and lard were xylenes and toluene, whereas 2-methyl-pentane was the most abundant for crude algal oil. Reactions with crude algal oil generated alkanes and aromatics in comparable amount with more gases than liquid products. Peanut oil and lard, the more refined triglyceride feedstocks, gave the highest total liquid product yields of nearly 90 wt.% and yields of aromatic hydrocarbons (around 50 wt %) that exceeded those from individual fatty acids under the same reaction condition. Taken collectively, these results demonstrate the technical feasibility of biorenewable aromatic chemical production from zeolite catalytic hydrothermal processing of triglyceride feedstocks.