Hydrocracking of Octacosane and Cobalt Fischer-Tropsch Wax over Nonsulfided NiMo and Pt-Based Catalysts

The effect of activation environment (N-2, H-2 and H2S/H-2) on the hydrocracking performance of a NiMo/Al catalyst was studied at 380 degrees C and 3.5 MPa using octacosane (C-28). The catalyst physical structure and acidity were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM-EDX and FTIR techniques. The N-2 activation generated more active nonsulfided NiMo/Al catalyst relative to the H-2 or H2S activation (X-C28, 70-80% versus 6-10%). For a comparison, a NiMo/Si-Al catalyst was also tested after normal H-2 activation and showed higher activity at the same process conditions (X-C28, 81-99%). The high activity of the NiMo/Al (N-2 activation) and NiMo/Si-Al catalysts was mainly ascribed to a higher number of Br & oslash;nsted acid sites (BAS) on the catalysts. The hydrocracking of cobalt wax using Pt/Si-Al and Pt/Al catalysts confirmed the superior activity of the Si-Al support. A double-peak product distribution occurred at C-4-C-6 and C-10-C-16 on all catalysts, which illustrates secondary hydrocracking and faster hydrocracking at the middle of the chain. The nonsulfided NiMo/Al and Pt/Al catalysts, and NiMo/Si-Al catalyst produced predominantly diesel (sel. 50-70%) and gasoline range (sel. > 50%) hydrocarbons, respectively, accompanied by some CH4 and light hydrocarbons C-2-C-4. On the other hand, the hydrocarbon distribution of the Pt/Si-Al varied with conditions (i.e., diesel sel. 87-90% below 290 degrees C or gasoline sel. 60-70% above 290 degrees C accompanied by little CH4) The dependence of the isomer/paraffin ratio on chain length was studied as well. The peak iso/paraffin value was observed at C-10-C-13 for the SiAl catalyst.