The role of alumina support in the deoxygenation of rapeseed oil over NiMo–alumina catalysts

Deoxygenation of rapeseed oil was studied over NiMo–alumina catalysts. The research was focused on supporting of Ni and Mo species on a conventional alumina (255 m2 g−1) and a commercially available mesoporous alumina (520 m2 g−1) supports and on establishing their catalytic performance. The NiMo–alumina/meso catalyst showed significantly better performance than the NiMo–alumina catalyst in deoxygenation of rapeseed oil. The better performance was attributed to the significantly higher specific surface area and the total pore volume of NiMo–alumina/meso in comparison with the NiMo–alumina.