Stabilizing Catalytic
Pathways via Redundancy: Selective
Reduction of Microalgae Oil to Alkanes
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Abstract
A new route to convert crude microalgae oils using ZrO<sub>2</sub>-promoted Ni catalysts into diesel-range alkanes in a cascade
reaction
is presented. Ni nanoparticles catalyze the selective cleavage of
the C–O of fatty acid esters, leading to the hydrogenolysis
of triglycerides. Hydrogenation of the resulting fatty acids to aldehydes
(rate-determining step) is uniquely catalyzed via two parallel pathways,
one via aldehyde formation on metallic Ni and the second via a synergistic
action by Ni and ZrO<sub>2</sub> through adsorbing the carboxylic
groups at the oxygen vacancies of ZrO<sub>2</sub> to form carboxylates
and subsequently abstracting the α-hydrogen atom to produce
ketene, which is in turn hydrogenated to aldehydes and decarbonylated
on Ni nanoparticles