Development of chromium-impregnated sulfated silica as a mesoporous catalyst in the production of biogasoline from used cooking oil via a hydrocracking process

The production of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels has been a significant challenge until recently. The present work focuses on hydrocracking used cooking oil (UCO) into biogasoline over chromium impregnated on a sulfated mesoporous silica catalyst. The effects of varying sulfuric acid concentration, calcination temperature, and impregnated chromium content were systematically studied in the synthesis process employing TEOS and NaHCO3 by sol-gel method. A sulfuric acid concentration of 2 M and calcination temperature of 600 degrees C produced an SO4-SiO2 catalyst with the best acidity of 8.46 mmol g-1. Variation of chromium content (wt%) of 1% had Cr/SO4-SiO2 catalyst with the best acidity of 8.57 mmol g-1. SiO2, SS 2-600, and Cr-SS 1 catalysts were tested for their performance in the hydrocracking of UCO into biogasoline at an optimum temperature of 450 degrees C, H2 gas flow rate of 20 mL min-1, catalyst-to-feed ratio of 1:100 wt%, and time of 2 h. Hydrocracking using a Cr-SS 1 catalyst produced the most liquid product at 37.14% with the highest gasoline fraction selectivity of 29.38%.