Production of liquid fuels from low-temperature coal tar via hydrogenation over CoMo/USY catalysts

Abstract

In the present work, CoMo/USY catalysts with various Mo loading were prepared by ultrasonic-assisted incipient-wetness impregnation method and characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TEM, EDX-Mapping, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD and Py-FTIR techniques. The catalytic performance was investigated for hydrogenation of low-temperature coal tar. The product distribution including gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon was determined. The total light oil (≤ 300 °C) yield was 90 wt% with gasoline fraction (≤ 180 °C) of 47 wt% and diesel fraction (180–300 °C) of 43 wt%. Sulfur and nitrogen contents of below 10 and 50 μg g−1 in gasoline fraction, < 20 and 100 μg g−1 in diesel fraction were achieved. The research octane number (RON) value of gasoline fraction can reach 87, and the cetane number of diesel fraction was 44. Moreover, the hydrocarbon group composition of gasoline and diesel fractions were analyzed. These results demonstrated that the raw coal tar could be upgraded through a fixed bed over the prepared CoMo/USY catalysts, and clean fuels from the hydrogenated product could be a wonderful blending oil for high quality fuels.