Highly porous cobalt and molybdenum-containing ordered silica applied to pyrolysis of sunflower oil into bio-hydrocarbons

The growth of the global population continues to increase the demand for energy. Petroleum-based fuels are the most used, resulting in very high emissions of greenhouse gasses. The aim of this present work was to undertake a kinetic study of the production of bio-hydrocarbons from oil sunflower, using catalysts composed of ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41 impregnated with cobalt and molybdenum oxides. The catalysts synthesized in this study underwent characterization using XRD, FRX, FTIR, SEM and TGA analysis. Thermal & catalytic kinetics approaches used in the research were the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose methods. The TGA analyses revealed catalytic activity of the synthesized materials and their ability to reduce the activation energy (Ea) during the degradation/volatilization process of sunflower oil. Notably, Mo/MCM-41 exhibited the most significant reduction in Ea, approximately 44%. In the thermal pyrolysis process without a catalyst, the per-centage of hydrocarbons formed was 16%, while in the catalytic pyrolysis, the percentages of hydrocarbons obtained were 28% (MCM-41), 16% (Mo/MCM-41), 21% (Co/MCM-41), and 45% (Co-Mo/MCM-41). For MCM-41, 8% was in the gasoline range, 29% was in the biokerosene range, and 62% was in the green diesel range. For the Mo/MCM-41, Co/MCM-41, and Co-Mo/MCM-41 catalysts, the biokerosene range corresponded to 24%, 27%, and 19%, while the green diesel range corresponded to 75%, 72%, and 80%, respectively.