SELECTIVE HYDROGENATION OF FAME TO FATTY ALCOHOLS ON Ru-Sn-B/Al2O3 CATALYSTS

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

San Luis Potosí

Congreso; VIII CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL Y XVII CONGRESO MEXICANO DE CATÁLISIS; 2021

The selective hydrogenation of biodiesel (FAME) to fatty alcohols was studied using Ru-Sn-B/Al2O3 catalysts. The most active and selective catalyst for the formation of oleic alcohol from FAME by hydrogenation was Ru1Sn2/Al2O3. This was attributed to an adequate balance between Ru and Sn. If the amount of Sn is high (4 wt%) the catalyst has low activity because Ru atoms are blocked or electronically disturbed by Sn species while with a lower amount of Sn (2 wt%) a high selectivity is observed for hydrogenating the carbonyl group thus obtaining a higher selectivity to fatty alcohols. In addition, it was found that the optimum temperature for the reaction was 290 °C while the optimum pressure was 6.12 MPa. Higher reaction temperatures lead to loss of selectivity due to the formation of n-octadecane and n-hexadecane.