Performance-focused Catalyst Design to Meet Diesel Quality Improvements—Part II

Abstract

In this work, we present an experimental evaluation concerning the catalytic hydrocracking of gas oil (GO) feedstock. The study was carried out using five types of supported NiMo-based catalysts (100A, 100AP, 100AB, 100H-DY, and 30H-DY). Screening tests of the performance of these sulfided catalysts were carried out in a high-pressure batch autoclave at temperatures of 350°C–425°C, reaction time of 1–3 hr, catalyst/feed ratios of 5–10%, and initial hydrogen pressure of 6.0 MPa. This study clearly shows that the incorporation of H-DY zolite into aluminum borate (AB) matrix led to a greatly improved hydrocracking catalyst for production of lighter products, in addition to depressing the pour point of the diesel fuel product. In all experiments, the yield of gasoline and gaseous products increased dramatically by increasing the severity of the process variables. A high-pressure test unit was used to study the effect of different process variables as pressure (3.0–6.0 MPa), liquid hourly space velocity (1.5–3 hr−1), hydrogen/ GO volumetric ratio (400 vol./vol.), and temperatures of 375°C, on the GO conversion to various products using 30H-DY catalyst, and to correlate the impact of process conditions on the yield and quality of diesel fuel and gasoline products to optimize the process