Oxidative Cleavage of Linoleic and Linolenic Acids Followed by Decarboxylation for Hydrocarbon Production

Abstract

Hydrocarbon fuel production from polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic acids) was studied in a two-step process: oxidative cleavage followed by decarboxylation. In the first step, the effects of oxidizing agent concentration and reaction temperature were investigated. The optimum yield for oxidative cleavage of linoleic acid was 90.3 mol% of hexanoic acid and 53.8 mol% of nonanedioic acid; while that of linolenic acid was 60.0 mol% of nonanedioic acid. In the second step, decarboxylation of hexanoic and nonanedioic acids into hydrocarbons was investigated under different N₂ pressures with a Pd/C catalyst to yield 73.5 mol% of n-pentane and 73.1 mol% of n-heptane, respectively, which correspond to the carbon number range of gasoline (C4-C10).