DOI: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.20483

Effect of Aluminium Loading on SiO2/Al2O3-NiMo Catalysts Synthesized via KHP-template for Crude Palm Oil Hydrocracking

1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Sriwijaya, Indralaya, Sumatra Selatan 30662, Indonesia

2Chemistry Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

3Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Sriwijaya, Indralaya, Sumatra Selatan 30662, Indonesia

4 Research Center for Chemistry, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Building 452 Kawasan PUSPIPTEK, Serpong, Tangerang Selatan, Banten, Indonesia

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Received: 6 Sep 2025; Revised: 7 Oct 2025; Accepted: 7 Oct 2025; Available online: 13 Oct 2025; Published: 26 Dec 2025.
Editor(s): Istadi Istadi
Open Access Copyright (c) 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Abstract

The present study evaluates the catalytic activity of SiO2/Al2O3‒x and SiO2/Al2O3‒x‒NiMo (where x = 5, 10, 25 g of aluminium weight) synthesized using a potassium hydrogen phthalate (KHP) template-assisted route for the hydrocracking of crude palm oil (CPO) into biofuels. Increasing Al weight modified acidity, porosity, and NiMo dispersion, leading to distinct catalytic behavior. The optimal SiO2/Al2O3‒x‒NiMo catalyst (10 g Al) achieved ~94% conversion, dominated by jet fuel-range hydrocarbons (C10-C14) through synergistic hydrodeoxygenation and acid-catalyzed cracking-isomerization pathway. The enhanced performance originates from the balance between acidity and metal dispersion, highlighting that both template selection and Al loading govern the design of efficient SiO2/Al2O3‒NiMo catalysts for biofuel production. Copyright © 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

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Keywords: SiO2/Al2O3; potassium hydrogen phthalate; crude palm oil, hydrocracking; NiMo catalyst
Funding: Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Indonesia under contract 050/E5/PG.02.00.PL/2024.

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Language : EN
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