The HDO and HDC of vegetable oils,
which normally occur simultaneously, were first commercialized
by the Finland Company, Neste Oil [20,21]. The goal of the
company was to develop gasoline, biodiesel and jet fuels from
renewable feedstock without any compromise to fuel properties,
engines specifications or international emission standards [22,23].
Ability of vegetable oils to be hydrotreated into valuable paraffinic
fuels without sulfur or aromatic compounds is the promising factor
relied by the company. The Neste Technology operates on the basis
of existing refinery mechanism (see Fig. 1). Vegetable oils can be
mixed with fossil feeds and fed into the existing process units [21].
Following this development, several other production units are
being developed around the globe by oil companies [20,21]. In fact,
the market for these types of fuels have been predicted to rise from
6% in 2010 to about 12% in 2018 with further increase for the
subsequent years [22,24]. Therefore research, especially with
emphasis to catalyst development and operation parameters,
needs a speedy intensification. The identification of most suitable
catalysts in terms of vegetable oil conversion, selectivity to jet fuels
range paraffins and stability properties would elevate the
economic viability and sustainability of the overall process.
Evaluation of heterogeneous catalysts would therefore be very
important due to their numerous advantages. They can easily and
cheaply be recovered after the reaction. They are characterized by
good thermal stability and enhanced selectivity to desired reaction
products. The exploitation of homogeneous catalysts could be
associated with challenges such as poor thermal stability, difficult