Upgrading of light cycle oil by partial hydrogenation and selective ring opening over an iridium bifunctional catalyst

Abstract

An iridium catalyst supported on USY zeolite has been evaluated for hydrotreating of light cycle oil (LCO) to reduce its aromaticity and improve its cetane index. The products were analyzed by GC and 13 C NMR spectrometry to determine quantitatively the aromatic carbon content and the increase in cetane index. Addition of an appropriate amount of potassium was found to be an effective way of optimizing the acid properties of the catalyst; reducing the number of strongly acid sites reduced its cracking activity. The results confirm that 0.9% (w/w) Ir/USY zeolite catalyst doped with 0.75% (w/w) K was highly suitable for partial hydrogenation and ring opening of LCO to improve cetane quality, thus increasing the extent of its blending ratio with the diesel pool.

Catalytic Ring Opening of MCH and MCP Over Ir Containing USY and HZSM-5 with the Same SiO2/Al2O3 Ratio

“…As we previously observed [2,15] impregnation with Ir, results in a loss of acidic sites as shown in Table 3, which may indicate blocking of pores during Ir impregnation process. In 0.9 % Ir/USY catalyst, broad desorption peaks were observed in the temperature range of 400-600°C showing the presence of strong acidic sites which is higher than that of Ir/HZSM-5 catalyst.…”

“…There are some reports found for RO of naphthenic compound, in which they mentioned Ir as a RO metal of particular interest [1,4,[10][11][12][13][14][15]. SRO is generally carried out on certain noble metals and their hydrogenolysis ability increase in the order of Pt \ Pd \ Ru \ Rh \ Ir supported on Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , and zeolites [1,13].…”

“…Owing to its intrinsically high hydrogenolysis activity, Ir is an active-component of the catalysts employed for upgradation of heavy petroleum fractions, its supremacy is clearly illustrated by several patents [10,11]. In our previous work an iridium catalyst supported on USY zeolite has been evaluated for hydrotreating of LCO to reduce its aromaticity and improve its cetane index [15]. Another attractive property of Ir is that when it introduced into a hydrocarbon refining catalyst, formation of carbonaceous deposits gets tempered and deactivation markedly slow down [13].…”

Hydrogenation of Tetralin over Supported Ni and Ir Catalysts

“…Noble metal catalysts like Ir, Pt, Pd, and Ru are predominantly used for the hydrogenation of aromatics compounds and selective ring opening process [14][15][16][17]. Due to their cost effectiveness and prone to the sulfur poisoning, it has been necessary to develop a less expensive but efficient catalyst for the hydrogenation process.…”

Bifunctional noble metal/zeolite catalysts for upgrading low-quality diesel fractions via selective opening of naphthenic rings

“…hydrogenation and ring opening of untreated LCO having high aromatics (72.3%) and sulphur (2.513 ppm) contents, high density (0.9366 g cm −3 ), and a very low CN of 18. 80 The reaction was conducted in a batch reactor at 300 °C and ca. 30 bar H 2 pressure for 1 h. Under the studied conditions, the CN was increased from 18 to 27 due to an increase in the concentration of monoaromatics and aliphatics.…”