Bio gasoline production from rubber seed oil using Ni/HY zeolite and Mo/HY zeolite as catalysts

Crude rubber seed oil was used in this study to determine the ability of the oil to produce bio gasoline. Catalytic cracking of rubber seed oil over zeolites of HY supporting Ni and Mo catalysts was carried out with limited amount of research of bio gasoline production from rubber seed oil. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of metal loading on bio gasoline yield and composition. Nickel and Molybdenum were chosen as the metallic function of the catalysts due to hydro processing catalysts. Three different metal loadings of Ni and Mo were studied which are 3%, 12% and 15 % to investigate the effect of different amount of metal on the catalytic activity for hydrocracking of rubber seed oil into bio gasoline products. All the catalysts were subjected to characterisation techniques such as BET, H2TPR, FESEM to understand the physicochemical properties of the catalysts. At initial condition, the variables are fix at 400°C, 4 grams of catalyst, 1atm pressure under nitrogen flow for 3 hours reaction time in hydrocracker reactor for initial screening of the catalysts. The conversion of rubber seed oil into bio gasoline components were measured ranging from C5-C12 hydrocarbons. Among all the metal loadings of both metals, 3% Nickel on HYZ was found to be the most efficient due to highest conversion of rubber seed oil into bio gasoline. This is due to the high surface area, large pore size and pore volume. The screened catalysts i.e. 3 wt% Ni/H-Zeolite was chosen for optimisation of temperature. The effect of temperature was observed by increasing temperature from (300-500°C). The optimised temperature was observed at 400°C at which bio gasoline relative composition was 43.15%. The results proved that rubber seed oil has high potential to be utilised as an alternative energy resource for bio gasoline production.