3-1-4 Renewable Gasoline Production from Oleic Acid by Oxidative Cleavage and Subsequent Decarboxylation

Abstract

Renewable gasoline production from oleic acid (OA), a major constituent of plant oil, was studied by oxidative cleavage and subsequent decarboxylation. Oxidative cleavage was conducted with KMnO4 as oxidizing agent to cleave OA into two short-chain fatty acids; pelargonic acid (PA) and azelaic acid (AA). They were then decarboxylated with Pd/C catalyst to produce hydrocarbons in gasoline range. We determined separately the optimum reaction conditions for both reactions, and found that the process worked well to produce the designated hydrocarbons for PA. However, the conversion of AA into hydrocarbon was only around 70mol%, due to the production of volatile compounds such as methane, ethane and propane.