He Taotao,Wang Fei,Feng Junfeng,Liu Yancong,Chen Yuwei,Guo Feihong,Liu Peng,Jiang Xiaoxiang,Jiang Jianchun
To efficiently convert the microalgae to valuable and renewable fuels, the microalgae oil was first extracted and then transformed into the second-generation biodiesel. Among all solvents that were used for the microalgae oil extraction, the polar single solvent system methanol achieved the optimal value (47.8% extraction yield) because the polar cell membrane was easily dissolved by the polar solvent. Hexadecanoic acid (38.54%) and docosanoic acid (54.39%) dominated in fatty acid of microalgae oil. In the catalytic deoxygenation of microalgae oil, the Co-Al nanosheet displayed a higher performance than Co/Al 2 O 3 because of its high Co content and lamellar structure, exposing massive Co sites with high dispersion and small particle size. Moreover, when the reaction temperature was raised to 240 °C, the 100% conversion and 100% alkane yield were obtained, and the further temperature rise in temperature led to the cracking reaction. Graphical Abstract
Lipid hydrotreatment to generate green diesel can weaken the dependence on unrenewable fossil fuels. The catalytic performance of Co catalyst is greatly limited by the dispersion and the number of Co active sites. To solve this problem, the Co-Al nanosheet was synthesized by using Co-Al LDH as the precursor. In the fatty acid hydrotreatment at 220 °C, the Co-Al nanosheet attained 98.0 % conversion and 64.3 % alkane yield, much higher than that of the Co/Al 2 O 3 catalyst (83.7 % conversion and 18.7 % alkane yield). From the catalyst characterizations, the excellent activity of Co-Al nanosheet was mainly ascribed to its high Co content and lamellar structure, exposing massive Co sites with high dispersion and small particle size. In addition, the high percentage of weak acidity, strong interaction between support and Co sites, and the improvement of the decarboxylation route also contributed to its catalytic performance. Moreover, the kinetics of octadecanol hydrotreatment over Co-Al nanosheet and Co/Al 2 O 3 revealed that octadecanol hydrotreatment more easily occurred over Co-Al nanosheet regarding the lower activation energy.