Kinetic Modeling of Hydrodeoxygenation of Methyl Oleate over Solid Catalysts to Green Diesel from First Principles

This dissertation covers the activities and findings of Final Year Project (FYP) I &
II. FYP I activities are mainly on the literature research, elucidation of reaction
mechanisms and development of kinetic models. FYP II on the other hands is
actually the continuation of the FYP I activities. In clear picture, FYP II covers the
simulation of the developed kinetic models using MATLAB software, graphing and
tabulation of results and finally, the analysis of the findings. The analysis is
concluded based on the related research papers that had been produced by many
scholars.
Current development of green diesel production was focusing on the triglycerides as
the feedstock. There is no study on the green diesel production using monoglyceride.
Because of that, the intent of this paper is to study the trend and variat ion of optimal
operating temperature and initial hydrogen pressure at which reaction route can
efficiently hydroconvert methyl oleate, an example of monoglyceride. The research
provides insights for future optimal operation and industrial scaling by using
monoglyceride as the feedstock to produce green diesel.
The parameters to be identified at the end of the project are methyl oleate
conversion, selectivity towards formation of through hydrodeoxygenation
reaction (to suppress decarboxylation and decarbonylation), yield for all of the
components involved in the conversion, optimum temperature and optimum pressure
within 2 hours reaction time.
The project has undergone few stages to achieve the objectives. The stages involved
are literature study, elucidation of reaction mechanisms, derivation of rate
expressions, pre-exponential factors calculations, reactor model development from
first principles and finally, simulation of the model equations using MATLAB
software.
Overall, the project has achieved all of the objectives, with optimum operating
temperature of 270 ⁰C, pressure of 50 bar in 2 hours reaction time, for 100 %
maximum methyl oleate conversion forming 79 mol% of maximum octadecane
yield.