Production of renewable hydrocarbons in the range of aviation biokerosene from babassu oil

In this work, babassu oil was selected as a raw material potentially capable of producing renewable hydrocarbons in the biokerosene range by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), in the presence of the NiMo / γ-Al2O3 catalyst. According to gas chromatography, practically 70 % of the fatty acids constituent of babassu oil had carbon chains containing between 10 and 16 carbon atoms, with a predominance of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 12 carbon atoms (44.58 %). A full factorial design 23 with a central point was carried out in order to investigate the individual and interaction effects on the selectivity to hydrocarbons of the following factors: reaction time, temperature, and H2 pressure. The liquid reaction products were characterized by gas chromatography (CG-FID) and the experimental results were adjusted by a mathematical model. According to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the parameters temperature, reaction time, and H2 pressure were significant. Temperature was the variable with the greatest influence on selectivity to hydrocarbons. The interaction factors reaction time - temperature and temperature - H2 pressure were also significant. The best selectivity result was achieved at a temperature of 340 ºC and 70 bar of H2, in which 98.41 % of hydrocarbons were obtained, in a time of 5 h. Under the conditions evaluated in this work, it was possible to obtain a high selectivity to renewable hydrocarbons in the range of aviation biokerosene by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) from babassu oil. Babassu oil has proved to be a potential raw material for obtaining this biofuel.