ABSTRACT
The middle distillate from a synthetic crude oil derived from Athabasca bitumen was further hydrotreated in a downfiow pilot unit over a typical NiMo catalyst at 330° to 400°C, 7 to 11 MPa and 0.63 to 1.39 h-1LHSV. Feed and liquidproducts were characterized for aromatics, cetane index (CI) and other diesel specification items. Aromatics were determined by a supercritical fluid chromatography method, while CI was determined using the correlation developed at SyncrudeCanada Ltd. Also feed and selected products were distilled into a jet fuel cut (150°/260°C) by spinning band distillation for the determination of smoke point and other jet fuel specification items. A good relationship between aromatics content and CI was obtained. Kinetics of aromatics hydrogenation were investigated, employing a simple-first order reversible reaction model.
