Green hydrocarbons fuel production from agricultural waste biomass in the presence of a novel heterogeneous catalyst

Hydrocarbons (fuel) derived from agricultural waste biomass are potential alternatives, and these hydrocarbons are within range of jet fuel and diesel. In the current research work, date seeds are considered a feedstock for bio-oil (composed of oxygenated hydrocarbons) and is subjected to hydro-deoxygenation to produce green jet fuel and diesel. Hydro-deoxygenation is exothermic reaction and involves cracking for which a novel heterogeneous catalyst is synthesised. The heterogeneous catalyst consists of an acidic nature precursor derived from waste glass (SiO₂) and active metals (tungsten, nickel and palladium) to provide the acidic sites for better-desired product yield. The synthesised catalysts are characterised in detail by the following techniques X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Ammonia-Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and based on characterisation it is revealed that synthesised will be suitable for hydro-deoxygenation. The most appropriate combination of metal and precursor is Pd-SiO₂. Product oil's optimised degree of deoxygenation (DOD) is found to be 93.7% with the following parameters: temperature 340 °C, time 4 h and 4 wt.% of Pd on SiO₂. Further on, to prove the commercial viability of the catalyst, it was subjected to five consecutive experimental runs, and it was much active till 5^th run if treated before each run. Thus, it can be concluded that bio-oil source is agricultural waste, and for catalyst precursor waste glass is considered; so by considering these factors, the product oil produced has components which lie within the range of jet fuel and diesel, which can be economical as well as eco-friendly source of fuel.