ABSTRACT
David Kubička,a Narendra Kumar,a Päivi Mäki-Arvela,a Marja Tiitta,b
Tapio Salmi,a and Dmitry Yu. Murzina
aLaboratory of Industrial Chemistry, Process Chemistry Centre, Åbo Akademi University, FIN-20500 Åbo/Turku, Finland
bFortum Oil and Gas Oy, POB 310, FIN-06101 Porvoo, Finland
Abstract The activity of H-Beta-25, H-Beta-75, H-Y-12, and of their Pt-impregnated counterparts has been investigated in the ring opening of decalin at 523 K in the presence of hydrogen. Ring opening was found to take place with an increased rate and selectivity on Pt-impregnated zeolites as compared to proton-form zeolites. Prior to ring opening, decalin underwent skeletal isomerization; cracking of ring-opening products occurred consecutively. Introduction The new tighter diesel fuel specifications aiming at decreasing the amount of harmful emissions from diesel engines compel the development of advanced refinery technologies. The use of mainly secondary refinery streams, such as light cycle oil (LCO) from fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), as a blending stock in the diesel pool, is constrained by their high sulfur and aromatics content and low cetane number. Due to the legislation, either less LCO can be used for diesel blending or it has to be upgraded so that the final diesel fuel satisfies the specifications. Cetane number (CN) is a very important parameter being directly related to the reduction of emissions. Diesel fuels with higher CN emit less CO, particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons. Emissions of NOx can be reduced as well. The cetane number is increased by hydrogenation of aromatics in the fuel into naphthenes. However, the enhancement is not always sufficient and further upgrading to alkylnaphthenes and/or paraffins is required. This can be achieved by ring opening of naphthenes (1, 2).
