Model-Based Investigation of Catalyst Fouling in the Case of Special Hydrocracking of Sunflower Oil and Kerosene Mixture

Abstract

In this work, the catalyst deactivation phenomenon in the case of special hydrocracking of sunflower oil and kerosene mixture was analyzed based on experiments and models. Alternative (bio/waste-originated) fuels are becoming more important to reduce the full life cycle environmental pollution of transportation. One of the production possibilities of these alternative fuels is the co-processing (i.e., catalytic quality improvement) of fossil and biobased feedstocks. The huge number of individual chemical components in the system increases the complexity of the investigation. Moreover, from the chemical analysis viewpoint, only some of these can be followed during the experiments. Hence, the models to describe the processes in this system (hydrocracker) are usually based on lumps (i.e., component groups). Experimental data are reported on the special catalytic hydrocracking of sunflower oil and kerosene mixture for the production of high-quality aviation fuel (JET). Experiments were carried out in a fixed-...