Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 Catalyst for Gasoil Range Hydrocarbon Production by Catalytic Hydrocracking of Ceiba pentandra oil

Biofuel from vegetable oil becomes one of the most suitable and logical alternatives to replace fossil fuel. The research focused on various metal ratio Zinc/Molybdenum/HZSM-5 (Zn-Mo/HZSM-5) catalyst to produce liquid hydrocarbon via catalytic hydrocracking of Ceiba penandra oil. The catalytic hydrocracking process has been applied in this study to crack Ceiba pentandra oil into a gasoil range hydrocarbon using Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 as a catalyst. The effect of various reaction temperature on the catalytic hydrocracking of Ceiba pentandra oil were studied. The Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst with metal ratio was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method. This process used slurry pressure batch reactor with a mechanical stirrer. A series of experiments were carried out in the temperature range from 300-400 oC for 2 h at pressure between 10-15 bar. The conversion and selectivity were estimated. The liquid hydrocarbon product were identified to gasoline, kerosene, and gas oil. The results show that the use of Zn-Mo/HZSM-5 can produce gas oil as the most component in the product. Overall, the highest conversion and selectivity of gas oil range hydrocarbon was obtained when the ZnMo/HZSM-5 metal ratio was Zn(2.86 wt.%)-Mo(5.32 wt.%)/HZSM-5 and the name is Zn-Mo/HZSM-5_102. The highest conversion was obtained at 63.31 % and n-paraffin (gas oil range) selectivity was obtained at 90.75 % at a temperature of 400 oC. Ceiba pentandra oil can be recommended as the source of inedible vegetable oil to produce gasoil as an environmentally friendly transportation fuel.