A commercially-viable, one-step process for production of green diesel from soybean oil on Pt/SAPO-11 Moti Herskowitz a,⇑ , Miron V. Landau a , Yehudit Reizner a , Dov Berger b a Department of Chemical Engineering, Blechner Center for Industrial Catalysis and Process Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel b Ormat Industries Ltd., Yavne, Israel highlights  Pt/SAPO-11-Al 2 O 3 catalyst display stable operation in one-step hydrotreating of soybean oil.  Complete oils deoxygenation at selected conditions yields a component of diesel fuel.  The composition and properties of the product correspond to qualified diesel fuel. article info Article history: Received 14 February 2013 Received in revised form 15 April 2013 Accepted 18 April 2013 Available online 4 May 2013 Keywords: Vegetable oil Hydrotreating Pt/zeolite catalyst SAPO-11 Diesel fuel abstract The conversion of soybean oil to green diesel was carried out on Pt/SAPO-11-Al 2 O 3 catalyst in a trickle- bed reactor. Steady-state operation was reached after about 150 h. The steady-state performance was recorded at 375–380 °C, 30 atm and LHSV = 1 h 1 . The green diesel produced in this study was character- ized according to ASTM procedures by a certified lab. Most of its properties were found to fit the standard of qualified diesel fuel (European standard EN-590) making it an excellent component for diesel fuel blends. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The production of alternative and renewable liquid fuels for transportation from feedstocks other than crude oil is one of the most challenging tasks of the 21st century. Among such feedstocks, biomass is the most viable for the short- and mid-term production of renewable fuels, i.e., gasoline, jet-fuel and diesel [1–4]. Biomass may be derived from three different sources: lignocelluloses (i.e., forest waste, corn stover, switch grass), sugar/starch (sugarcane, corn grain) and lipids (animal, vegetable and algae oils) [2]. Micro- bial oils are an important potential feedstock for production renewable diesel. A vast number of recent publications, including many patents, indicate the great interest generated by the possibil- ity to convert lignocellulose to lipids ([33–35] and the cited refer- ences therein). This biomass can be converted into fuels via a variety of different routes, i.e., through thermal, catalytic, biologi- cal and/or synthetic biology processes. These processes for the gen- eration of renewable fuels have been recently classified into three generations [5,6]: (i) conventional processing of edible feedstocks (e.g., cane-based ethanol via fermentation; biodiesel via transeste- rification); (ii) advanced processing (e.g., gasification; hydropro- cessing; pyrolysis of non-edible feedstocks, e.g. waste greases, lignocelluloses, refuse) and (iii) harvesting and advanced process- ing of ultra-high yield biomass (e.g., algae oil). Specific efforts are made to apply algae for production of fuels [7–9]. At present, large-scale commercial routes include the production of ethanol from sugar/starch; of biodiesel by transesterification; and of renewable diesel by hydrotreatment of vegetable oils. Other routes are in various stages of development. Initially, most commercial processes for the conversion of veg- etable and animal oils to diesel were based on transesterification of the triglycerides with methanol to yield biodiesel, an inferior alter- native to commercial diesel [3,5]. Despite significant deficiencies in this product as diesel, the availability of a simple and low cost technology is the main reason for its dominant role in commercial production. However, catalytic, refinery-type processes could pro- duce a high quality diesel fuel, by far better than biodiesel, as clearly shown in a recent analysis of both fuels [12]. Several of those processes have been reviewed recently [10]. Neste Oil [11] 0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2013.04.044 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 8 6461482; fax: +972 8 6479427. E-mail address: herskow@exchange.bgu.ac.il (M. Herskowitz). Fuel 111 (2013) 157–164 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Fuel journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel