Hydroconversion of Crude Palm Oil Over Highly Dispersed Porous Silica Modified Zirconium Nitride: Effect of EDTA and KHF Template

In the present paper, the effect of potassium hydrogen phthalate (KHF) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as new templating agents on the features and catalytic activity of SiO2/ZrN was reported. SiO2/ZrN was successfully prepared by nitridation technique using an ammonia stream under a high-temperature reaction. As-prepared catalyst was tested for crude palm oil (CPO) hydroconversion. Both modified catalysts reveal a distinctive feature compared to parent silica as well SiO2/Zr and successfully enhanced the acidity features and the textural properties of the catalyst as well. SiO2/ZrN-EDTA dominantly formed a homogeneous pore size distribution with a mesoporous cavity, whereas SiO2/ZrN-EDTA directed the pore size towards micropores with a narrow pore size distribution. Further, the parent catalyst's particle size is also affected by this treatment, in which SiO2/ZrN-KHF exhibits the smallest average particle size, followed by the SiO2/ZrN-EDTA with a narrow particle size distribution. Hydrocracking of CPO showed an increase in the CPO hydroconversion, while simultaneously enhancing the liquid yield, suggesting a positive correlation with its acidity features. Prominently, SiO2/ZrN-KHF promotes a higher selectivity towards biogasoline, whereas SiO2/ZrN-EDTA enhances biokerosene selectivity. A reusability study revealed that SiO2/ZrN-based catalyst successfully inhibited the catalyst deactivation, showing adequate hydroconversion stability within 3 consecutive runs compared to parent silica and SiO2/Zr catalyst.