Production of diesel fuel from renewable feeds: Kinetics of ethyl stearate decarboxylation

The kinetics of liquid phase ethyl stearate decarboxylation for production of diesel fuel hydrocarbons was studied over a Pd/C catalyst in a semi-batch reactor. The kinetic behavior was tested in a wide range of temperature. Furthermore a supplementary investigation of the reaction intermediate, stearic acid, was performed. The main kinetic regularities were established in both cases. Finally successful kinetic modeling and parameter estimation was performed based on the proposed reaction route. The predicted results explained the experimental results well.