Selective Hydrogenation of Fame to fatty alcohols on Ru-Sn-B/Al2O3 and Rh-Sn-B/Al2O3 catalysts.

CRISTHIAN FONSECA BENÍTEZ; MARÍA ANA VICERICH; SANCHEZ, MARÍA AMPARO; FRANCISCO J. PASSAMONTI; CARLOS LUIS PIECK; VANINA ALEJANDRA MAZZIERI

Santa Fe

Workshop; French Argentinean Workshop on Heterogeneous Catalysis; 2023

INCAPE

The oleochemical industry tries to obtain products with similar properties that replace the products obtained in petrochemicals. In last years the development of oleochemical processes has increased due to the advantages they present compared to products obtained from petrochemical processes. This is due to their smaller environmental impact, biodegradability and availability from renewable resources Fatty alcohols are used in the production of detergents, in cosmetic emulsions to provide consistency, and in industrial emulsions as co-surfactants or solubilizers. Fatty alcohols may be produced through the hydrogenation of fatty acids or their esters derived from vegetable oils. In previous works we studied the selective hydrogenation reaction of methyl oleate and oleic acid to oleic alcohol using Ru-Sn-B and Rh-Sn-B catalysts supported on Al2O3, SiO2 and TiO2. The catalysts supported on Al2O3 were found to have good activity (conversion of 80-100%) and selectivity to oleic alcohol 45% and stearyl alcohol 11% with Ru-Sn-B and selectivity to oleic alcohol 88,5% and stearyl alcohol 5% with Rh-Sn-B . As biodiesel has a high content of fatty esters it is interesting to study their transformation into fatty alcohols. Ru-Sn-B/Al2O3 and Rh-Sn-B/Al2O3 catalysts were studied using biodiesel as feed in order to obtain catalysts capable of processing feeds similar to industrial ones.