Catalytic Deoxygenation of Hydrolyzed Oil of Chlorella Vulgaris Microalgae over Lanthanum-Embedded HZSM-5 Zeolite Catalyst to Produce Bio-Fuels

Microalgae is one of the most important sources of green hydrocarbons because it contains a high percentage of lipids and is likely to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Several zeolite-based catalysts have a short lifetime due to coke-formation deactivation. In this study, a lanthanum-modified HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst for the conversion of crude oil into non-oxygenated compounds (hydrocarbons) and oxygenated compounds has been investigated. The crude oil of Chlorella Vulgaris microalgae was extracted using Soxhlet and converted into hydrolyzed oil (HO) through a transesterification reaction. The experiments were conducted in a batch reactor (300 °C, 1000 rpm, 7 bar of N2, the catalyst to the algal HO ratio of 15% (wt.%) and 6 h). The results were organized into three groups: product yield, chemical composition, and carbon number distribution. The liquid products were investigated, including their elemental composition, higher heating value (HHV), atomic ratios of O/C and H/C, and degree of deoxygenation (DOD%). The loading of lanthanum into HZSM-5 zeolite with different loading percentages enhanced the acid sites needed for the algal HO conversion. Among all the synthesized catalysts, 10%La/HZSM-5 produced the highest conversion of the algal HO, the highest yield of hydrocarbons, the highest HHV, and the highest DOD%; those were 100%, 36.88%, 34.16 MJ/kg, and 56.11%, respectively. The enhanced catalytic conversion was due to the presence of lanthanum, which alters the active sites for the desired reactions of catalytic deoxygenation. The main effect of the modification of the parent HZSM-5 zeolite with lanthanum led to adjusting the acidic sites needed to increase the conversion (%) of the algal HO in the catalytic deoxygenation process and thus increase the hydrocarbon yield (%), which in turn led to an increase in the HHV and DOD%. The proposed La-based zeolite composite is promising for different energy applications due to its unique benefits compared to other expensive and less-stable catalysts.