Hydroconversion of Waste Cooking Oil into Bio-Jet Fuel over NiMo/SBUY-MCM-41

A hierarchical SBUY-MCM-41 catalyst was prepared by sacrificing USY (a microporous molecular sieve) to synthesize the MCM-41 zeolite via a hydrothermal method. The hydroconversion of waste cooking oil into hydrocarbon fuel over a NiMo/SBUY-MCM-41 catalyst was investigated. The micropores of the Y building units were inherited by the SBUY-MCM-41 zeolite, in which a special hierarchical structure was formed and the accessibility of reactants to the micropore active sites was improved. The hierarchical SBUY-MCM-41 showed high acidity and hydrothermal stability. Compared with mesoporous Al-MCM-41 and microporous USY zeolites, the SBUY-MCM-41-supported NiMo catalyst significantly enhanced the selective cracking of waste cooking oil for the production of jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons (37.3%), with the highest selectivity for the formation of C10–C14 hydrocarbons and a satisfactory selectivity for the formation of jet-fuel-range aromatics (7.6%), as well as a few cyclic compounds. The improved selectivity is the result of the special hierarchical structure and acid distribution of SBUY-MCM-41. This work provides a new strategy to synthesize a hierarchical catalyst for producing alternative jet fuel from waste cooking oil and vegetable oils.