Bifunctional catalysts for selective opening of decalin: thiotolerance and regeneration

SILVANA A. DIPPOLITO; SANTIAGO M. ROSAS; CATHERINE ESPECEL; FLORENCE EPRON; MARÍA A. VICERICH; VIVIANA M. BENITEZ; CARLOS L. PIECK

Santa Fe

Workshop; French-Argentinean Workshop on Heterogeneous Catalysis; 2023

The selective ring opening (SRO) is a viable technology to enhance the light cycle oil (LCO)fraction and thus contribute to meet the growing demand for diesel fuel. LCO products can behydrogenated and then opened by SRO to obtain linear or mono-branched paraffins leading toan improved cetane index for diesel fuel application. Moreover, the sulphur content of the LCOfractions is about 0.2 wt% to 2 wt% and the industrial fractions must be hydrotreated in a firststage to decrease the S content between 6 ppm to 16 ppm.In this work, the activity and S-tolerance of monometallic and bimetallic catalysts supportedon SiO2-Al2O3 and zeolite HY are studied in the hydroconversion of decalin (model moleculeof hydrogenated aromatics of the LCO fraction), as well as the regeneration of the mostpromising catalysts.