Vikas Verma, Wei-Cheng Wang, Agung Cahyono, Huang Jun Yang, Angel Vinny Vincentia Pelawi, Shi Jia Zhen
The adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in place of traditional jet fuels provides an effective pathway to mitigate carbon emissions and sustain the rising global demand for aviation. In this study, a Ni/zeoliteY catalyst (Si/Al = 5.2:1) with a high surface area of 355.6 m2/g was synthesized via wet impregnation and employed for the hydroprocessing of biodiesel into SAF-range hydrocarbons (C8-C16). The influence of reaction temperature (250–350 °C) and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV, 0.1–0.5 h−1) on product distribution were systematically investigated. Under optimized conditions (330 °C, 0.2 h−1 LHSV, 20 bar, H2/feedstock ratio of 1500), the catalyst achieved near-complete biodiesel conversion (99.96%) with high selectivity toward C8-C16 hydrocarbons (93.17%), including alkanes (51.88%), cycloalkanes (19.27%), and limited aromatics (12.54%), and an iso -alkane fraction of 75.8% (i/n = 3.14), yielding a product profile comparable to Jet A-1. Product distribution analysis indicates that decarboxylation/decarbonylation (DCO/DCO2) pathways dominate over hydrodeoxygenation, while hydrocracking and acid-catalyzed isomerization redistribute carbon into the SAF-range hydrocarbons. The bifunctional Ni/zeoliteY catalyst effectively couples metal-catalyzed hydrogenation with acid-mediated rearrangement, enabling efficient hydrodeoxygenation, hydroisomerization, and carbon redistribution. Overall, the work showcases the essential role of catalyst structure-performance relationships and optimized process conditions in advancing biodiesel valorization toward SAF-range hydrocarbons. © 2026 Elsevier Ltd.
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan; Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia
