The predicted shortage of fossil fuels and related environmental concerns have recently attracted significant attention to scientific and technological issues concerning the conversion of biomass into fuels. First-generation biodiesel, obtained from vegetable oils and animal fats by transesterification, relies on commercial technology and rich scientific background, though continuous progress i...

Zeolites with extra-large pores have attracted great attention because of their important applications such as in hydrocracking, catalysis, and separation of large molecules. Despite much progress has been made during the past decades, the synthesis of these materials remains a big challenge. A new extra-large-pore zeolite NUD-1 (Nanjing University Du's group zeolite no. 1) is synthesized by us...

Nickel oxide (NiO) and phosphotungstic acid (PTA) supported on a ZIF-8 (NiO-PTA/ZIF-8) catalyst was first synthesized and it showed high activity and good selectivity for the hydrocracking of Jatropha oil. The catalyst was characterized by SEM, SEM-EDS, TEM, N2 adsorption, FT-IR, XRD and XPS. Compared with the NiO-PTA/Al2O3 catalyst, the selectivity of C15-C18 hydrocarbon increased over 36%, an...

The fast depletion of petroleum crude oil reserves and the serious consideration of environmental issues make the implementation of sustainable energy sources a crucial issue worldwide. Biofuel derived from vegetable oils is receiving a great attention as one of the most suitable and logical alternatives of fossil fuels. Therefore, the production of petroleum-like fractions from nonedible oil e...