Catalytic upgrading of crude tall oil into a paraffin-rich liquid

Catalytic upgrading via hydrotreatment is an essential method to produce paraffin-range renewable feedstocks from bio-derived oils. This research approach studies the catalytic hydrotreating of crude tall oil (CTO) over a sulfided NiMo catalyst under industrial-relevant conditions in order to produce hydrocarbon fraction, a steam cracker feed with maximum amount of paraffins and high degree of deoxygenation. Initial activity of the catalyst (6 h of time on stream) has been investigated, and we report that hydrotreating experiments at most favorable tested conditions (weight hourly space velocity, WHSV = 1 h⁻¹ and T = 350–400 °C) produces hydrocarbon fraction with 45 wt% of paraffins (n-alkanes + i-alkanes). The highest degree of deoxygenation (91 %) was achieved at WHSV = 1 h⁻¹ and T = 350 °C. Furthermore, the potential of hydrotreated CTO for steam cracking applications has been assessed in this study in view of the achieved product distribution and degree of deoxygenation from the hydrotreating of CTO.