Hydrotreatment of Jatropha oil over NiMoLa/Al₂O₃ catalyst

The non-sulfided NiMoLa/Al₂O₃ catalyst was developed to produce renewable C₁₅-C₁₈ alkanes from the hydrotreatment of Jatropha oil. The NiMoLa/Al₂O₃ catalysts were prepared by an impregnation method and characterized by N₂-BET, XRD, XPS, TPD-H_ads, CO₂-TPD and TGA techniques. The straight chain alkanes ranging from C₁₅ to C₁₈ were the main components in the product oil. A yield of 78%, a selectivity of 94% and a conversion of 83% were obtained at 370 °C, 3.5 MPa and 0.9 h^-1 over the NiMoLa/Al₂O₃ catalyst (La 5.0 wt%). The influence of the reaction temperature (280-400 °C) and reaction time (4-177 h) on the composition of product oil were also investigated.