title: Stabilizing catalytic pathways via redundancy: selective reduction of microalgae oil to alkanes.
abstract: A new route to convert crude microalgae oils using ZrO(2)-promoted Ni catalysts into diesel-range alkanes in a cascade reaction is presented. Ni nanoparticles catalyze the selective cleavage of the C-O of fatty acid esters, leading to the hydrogenolysis of triglycerides. Hydrogenation of the resulting fatty acids to aldehydes (rate-determining step) is uniquely catalyzed via two parallel pathways, one via aldehyde formation on metallic Ni and the second via a synergistic action by Ni and ZrO(2) through adsorbing the carboxylic groups at the oxygen vacancies of ZrO(2) to form carboxylates and subsequently abstracting the α-hydrogen atom to produce ketene, which is in turn hydrogenated to aldehydes and decarbonylated on Ni nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Catalysis Research Center, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Baoxiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Xiaoguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Johannes A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lercher