Bio-jet fuel production from crude palm kernel oil under hydrogen-nitrogen atmosphere in a fixed-bed reactor by using Pt/C as catalyst

This research presents a study on the production of biojet fuel using crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) as a novel source. The aim of the research is to explore an efficient and high-throughput process for biojet production from CPKO. The experiment was conducted using a reactor packed with 5 wt.% platinum on carbon (Pt/C). Several key operating variables, such as reaction temperature, hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratio, pressure, gas flow rate, and CPKO flow rate, were investigated to optimize the yield of liquid product and biojet fuel. The optimal conditions determined were a reaction temperature of 400°C, pressure of 500 psi, CPKO flow rate of 0.02 mL/min, hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratio of 75:25, and gas flow rate of 25 mL/min. Under these conditions, the biojet fuel yield reached 59%, with a productivity of 330.6 gproduct/gcat-h. The results demonstrated superior production performance compared to other existing processes in the field

Continuous production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural: A catalyst-free approach using non-toxic solvents for pharmaceutical applications

This work aimed to develop the continuous 5-HMF production process from cane syrup for pharmaceutical applications. A catalyst-free process and a non-toxic solvent were implemented to achieve a cost-effective production process with considerations of safety and environmental impacts. This work studied the roles and influences of various non-toxic organic solvents on production performance and cost. The most common effective solvent (methyl isobutyl ketone) was used as a benchmark. The effects of various operating conditions on the 5-HMF yield and 5-HMF productivity were investigated and optimized based on an experimental design using the most suitable solvent selected. The 5-HMF yield of 66.8 % and 5-HMF production rate of 9.35 × 10−6 kg/h were achieved under the reaction temperature of 190 °C, residence time of 80 min, syrup feed concentration of 25 g/L, and organic-to-aqueous volumetric ratio of 1:1. The satisfactory 5-HMF yield and reasonable 5-HMF production were observed when compared to other processes obtained from the literature. The feasibilities for improving this process was also discussed