Direct slurry-phase hydrocracking of crude oil using trimetallic nanocatalyst

Crude to chemicals has become a very relevant topic to the refineries to acquire supreme profit. In this respect, slurry hydrocracking of crude oil plays an essential role to upgrade the crude oil as an upfront process. Three different trimetallic NiCoMo dispersed catalysts i.e., as-synthesized (AS), oil soluble (OS) and sulfided (PS) catalyst have been synthesized for the upgradation of Bombay High crude oil using slurry-phase hydrocracking reaction. Upon hydrocracking of the crude oil, the quality of the obtained liquid product was enhanced and characterized using simulated distillation, viscometer, SARA (saturate, aromatic, resin, asphaltene) analysis. The three different forms of the catalyst were examined using several analytical techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, TGA and BET surface area analyzer. From the hydrocracking reaction using AS catalyst, the results show a decrease in the amount of heavy VGO (>450 °C hydrocarbons) from 9.27 to 6.99 wt% and an increase in middle distillate (150 °C-350 °C) from 34.75 to 43.14 wt%. On using OS catalyst, the heavy VGO decreased from 9.27 to 5.59 wt% and middle distillate increased from 34.75 to 41.4 wt%. Finally, when PS catalyst was used, the heavy VGO decreased from 9.27 to 6.35 wt% and middle distillate increased from 34.75 to 52.92 wt%. Additionally, the asphaltene, vacuum residue (>565 ℃ hydrocarbons) (VR), viscosity, micro carbon residue (MCR) also gets decreased in the hydrocracked liquid product thereby revealing the synergistic catalytic effect of the trimetallic NiCoMo dispersed nanocatalysts.