(583bs) Selective Ring Opening of Multi-Ring Aromatics Over Ni-Containing Mesoporous Zeolite Catalyst

Minimizing multi-ring aromatics contents as well as sulfur contents in heavy residue from upgrading process of refinery has attracted a great deal of interest. Even though aromatic saturation and hydrocracking have been proved as commercial upgrading technologies, low cetane number increase and excessive cracking degree still have to be improved. A potential route is a partial aromatic saturation of multi-ring aromatics stream followed by selective ring opening of partially hydrogenated naphthenic rings without loss of reactant molecular weight.

In this study, a variety of Ni-containing mesoporous zeolites such as mesoporous Y, mesoporus beta and mesoporous ZSM-5 were synthesized and investigated for selective ring opening of naphthalene and phenanthrene. Ring opening of multi-ring aromatics were carried out using both batch-type and continuous fixed bed reaction system. Mesoporous zeolite supported catalysts showed higher catalytic activity than microporous zeolite supported catalyst, which implies that the mesoporosity of catalyst is beneficial for the ring opening reaction of multi-ring aromatics due to easy access for the bulky molecules.