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

CRISTHIAN FOSECA BENITEZ; MARIA A. VICERICH; MARIA A. SÁNCHEZ; FRANCISCO PASSAMONTI; CARLOS L. PIECK; VANINA A. MAZZIERI

Santa Fe

Workshop; French Argentinean Worshop on Heterogeneous Catalysis; 2023

The oleochemical industry tries to obtain products with similar properties that replace theproducts obtained in petrochemicals. In last years the development of oleochemical processeshas increased due to the advantages they present compared to products obtained frompetrochemical processes. This is due to their smaller environmental impact, biodegradabilityand availability from renewable resources [1].Fatty alcohols are used in the production of detergents, in cosmetic emulsions to provideconsistency, and in industrial emulsions as co-surfactants or solubilizers. Fatty alcohols maybe produced through the hydrogenation of fatty acids or their esters derived from vegetableoils. In previous works we studied the selective hydrogenation reaction of methyl oleate andoleic acid to oleic alcohol using Ru-Sn-B and Rh-Sn-B catalysts supported on Al2O3, SiO2 andTiO2. 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 [2] andselectivity to oleic alcohol 88,5% and stearyl alcohol 5% with Rh-Sn-B [3]. As biodiesel has ahigh content of fatty esters it is interesting to study their transformation into fatty alcohols. RuSn-B/Al2O3 and Rh-Sn-B/Al2O3 catalysts were studied using biodiesel as feed in order to obtaincatalysts capable of processing feeds similar to industrial ones.