Polymer magnetically separable catalyst for supercritical deoxygenation of fatty acids

In this paper, the possibility of using a magnetically separated ruthenium-containing catalyst based on a polymer matrix of hypercrosslinked polystyrene in the supercritical deoxygenation of stearic acid to produce a second-generation biodiesel fuel is studied. The catalyst was synthesized by a successive deposition of iron and ruthenium oxides to the polymeric support. The resulting catalytically active Ru-Fe3O4-HPS system is characterized by high specific surface area (364 m2/g) and magnetization (4.5 emu/g). This catalyst allows obtaining a high (up to 86%) yield of hydrocarbons C17+ and exhibits high activity in the process of deoxygenation in supercritical n-hexane. It was found that the selected catalytic system retains its catalytic activity for at least 10 consecutive cycles.