Production of Biofuel via Catalytic Hydrocracking of Kapuk (Ceiba pentandra) Seed Oil with NiMo/HZSM-5 Catalyst

Biofuel is one of alternative energy that is being developed today to solve the problem of limited fossil fuel as an energy source. The goal of this study is to produce biofuel from kapuk (Ceiba pentandra) seed oil (KSO) through catalytic hydrocracking process using NiMo/HZSM-5 catalyst. NiMo/HZSM-5 catalyst was obtained by impregnation of nickel and molybdenum as metallic precursors on HZSM-5 catalyst as support using incipient wetness impregnation method. It was found that the surface area of the catalyst was 222.1350 m2/g, the pore diameter was 3.0148 nm and the pore volume was 0.1674 cm3/g. The diffraction peaks of nickel oxide phase and the metallic phase of nickel were observed at 2θ of 62.5102° and 51.7283°. Molybdenum oxide phases were observed at 2θ of 53.5674° and 60.4682°. The catalytic hydrocracking process was performed using slurry pressure batch reactor at the temperature of 350°C for 2 h. The obtained liquid product was analyzed using GC-MS in order to determine the organic content. It has been found that the highest compounds were the palmitic acid with 23.14 area%. Besides, the hydrocarbon composition consisted of 33.93 area% (i.e. 4.34 area% cycloparaffins, 16.02 area% n-paraffins, 12.26 area% olefins, and 1.30 area% of aromatics) and 58.73 area% of carboxylic acid. Thus, it can be concluded that NiMo/HZSM-5 catalyst can convert KSO into biofuel through catalytic hydrocracking process at the temperature of 350°C for 2 h