Influence of Hydrogen Partial Pressure and Catalysts in the Catalytic Deoxygenation of Acetic Acid

The need for alternative fuels is heightened by the concerns posed by fossil fuels as they increase greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on imported petroleum, and depleting petroleum resources. The US Department of Energy (DOE) encourages academia, industry, national labs and nonprofit organizations for directed research on biomass processing towards cost-competitive and high performance alternative fuel products. The presence of oxygenates in bio-oil is diverting the attention from conventional biomass processing methods to deoxygenation. Hydrotreating, one deoxygenation process efficiently works towards that goal. However, the addition of sulfiding agents in hydrotreating catalysts along with the use of high hydrogen partial pressures makes the catalytic decomposition process for formation of bio-fuels from fatty acids by either removing carbon dioxide  (decarboxylation) or carbon monoxide (decarbonylation) viable.  To understand the mechanism of the catalytic decarboxylation reaction, to test and characterize the catalysts in terms of performance towards the formation of biofuels from fatty acids, acetic acid is considered. Of all the supported catalysts screened for the reaction, Palladium, Platinum and Nickel based catalysts have proven more worthwhile.