Activated Carbon-Supported Pt Catalysts Intended for the Hydroprocessing of Lipid Feedstocks: Effects of Support Surface Composition and Impregnation Protocol.

This work concerns the preparation of Pt/AC catalysts (Pt supported on activated carbon) and their application to the synthesis of hydrocarbon biofuels through the HEFA (hydroprocessing of esters and fatty acids) route. The key motivation for the work was that catalysts based on sulfided Mo supported on γ-AlO, traditionally employed in the hydroprocessing of petroleum derivatives, (i) are unstable in the HDO (hydrodeoxygenation) of biomass-derived feedstocks and (ii) can contaminate the resulting biofuels with sulfur. In this context, a systematic study on the effects of preparation conditions on the properties of the resulting Pt/AC catalysts and their performance in HEFA was carried out for the first time.