Renewable diesel production from plant oils with sub- and supercritical fluid technology

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25660279
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental agriculture(including landscape science)
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: SAKA Shiro 京都大学, エネルギー科学研究科, 教授 (50205697)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MINAMI Eiji 京都大学, 大学院エネルギー科学研究科, 助教 (00649204)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: バイオマス / バイオ軽油 / 油脂 / 超（亜）臨界流体技術 / 水素添加 / 脱炭酸処理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A new process for renewable diesel production from plant oils was studied, which involves hydrothermal hydrogenation and subsequent decarboxylation. As a result, the optimum condition of hydrothermal hydrogenation was found to be 270℃/5MPa (H2 pressure) in subcritical water with Pd/C catalyst for 1 hour. In this condition, triglycerides, main components of plant oils, were hydrolyzed and hydrogenated simultaneously into saturated fatty acids. Subsequently, saturated fatty acids were converted into hydrocarbons by decarboxylation reaction at 300℃/1MPa (H2 pressure) with Pd/C for 2 hours. Consequently, it was found that the composition of obtained hydrocarbons corresponded to the fatty acid composition of the plant oil used. The fact indicates that the composition of hydrocarbons can be changed to some extent by using various plant oils having different fatty acid composition.

Free Research Field

バイオマス化学