Jet fuel production from palm oil by catalytic hydrocracking using a Ni-Mo/HY catalyst

Catalytic hydrocracking of palm oil over zeolites of HY supporting Ni and Mo (Ni-Mo/HY) catalysts was carried out to produce jet fuels. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD) followed by the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with 17 runs was used to assess the significance of three factors: reaction temperature (degrees C), weight of the catalyst (%wt) used, and the reaction time (minute) required to achieve the optimum percentage of jet fuel (%jet fuel). The coefficients of determination (R-2) for regression equations were 99.51%. The probability value (p < 0.05) demonstrated a very good significance for the regression model. The optimal values of variables were reaction temperature (418.85 degrees C), the weight of the catalyst (3.16 wt%), and reaction time (119.37 min). Under the optimum conditions, % jet fuel reached 36.60%. The RSM was confirmed to sufficiently describe the range of convert palm oil into jet fuel parameters studied and provide a statistically accurate estimate of the best transform to jet fuel using Ni-Mo/HY as the catalyst. The physicochemical properties of the jet fuel were produced within the ASTM D7566 standard for jet fuel. The results proved that palm oil can be utilized as an alternative energy resource.