Diesel upgrading into a low emissions fuel

The revamp of existing diesel hydrotreating units using SHP technology was studied to improve the emission of the diesel engine. Gas and liquid-phase reactors were sequentially added to the actual trickle bed reactor. A special catalyst was employed. Micro-plant kinetic studies were performed and the results compared with those obtained with conventional trickle bed reactor operation. It was shown that using the gas and liquid-phase reactor, the hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, and ring-opening reactions can be enhanced, so can be the sulfur and cetane number properties. The new scheme decreased the mono-aromatic content in the lighter part of the diesel that improve the NOx and particulate emissions in exhaust gases of a diesel engine. A simplified kinetic model for gas and liquid-phase reactors was developed to optimize SHP reactors and to minimize investment. (C) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.