ABSTRACT
H-Oil and LC-Fining processes utilize a combination of thermal and catalytic hydroprocessing reactions to achieve high yields of distillate in upgrading bitumen or heavy oil residua. A total of 13 runs were performed using reaction unit to identify the best hydrocracking reaction conditions, and to evaluate the aluminophosphate catalysts having a range of Al/P ratios. The choice of catalyst is usually a compromise between two extremes: small pore catalyst with low metals capacity but higher activity that deactivates rapidly because of metals deposition and wide pore catalyst that has high metals deposition capacity but lower activity due to low surface area. The observed activity of a catalyst in a heterogeneous system depends on, among other factors, the surface area which is accessible to the reactants. For porous catalysts, it is not only the total surface area which governs the reaction, but also the average pore size and the pore size distribution.
