Catalytic cracking of heavy residue under different reaction conditions

Upgrading and refining of heavy residues by hydrocracking have gained considerable importance worldwide to produce more valuable, clean and environmental friendly transportation fuels. Hydrothermal reactions were performed on Arab heavy atmospheric residue using FCC, ZSM-5 zeolite, hydrocracking (HC-1) and hydroprocessing (NiMo) catalysts in a bench-scale fixed bed reactor to understand the changes in asphaltene structure during hydrocracking. The effect of four different catalysts on pyrolysis reactions showed that the cracking of residue is affected by catalyst type. At reaction conditions of 60 min and 400°C, all four catalysts yielded higher level of conversions. The hydrocracking reactions were performed at the following reaction conditions; reaction time: 1 hour, temperature 400°C, feed amount (Arab Heavy residue): 10 g, catalyst amount: 5% of feed (0.5 g) and hydrogen gas pressure: 900-1300 psi. All four catalysts used in this study were found to be effective in conversion of large asphaltene molecules into smaller moieties.