Synthesis and catalytic evaluation of mesoporous molecular sieve supported hydrocracking catalysts

A series of hydrocracking catalysts based on mesoporous molecular sieves of MCM-41 and SBA-15 with different silica/alumina ratios was prepared. Ni and Mo were used as active metals to impregnate the extrudates prepared using molecular sieves. The conversion of desulfurized VGO was lower as compared to that of the catalyst based on USY zeolite. However, the gas yield was lower in case of mesoporous materials based catalysts. For same type of material, the sample with high silica/alumina ratio exhibited higher surface area as compared with the samples with lower silica/alumina ratios due to the lower crystallinity observed by the XRD results. The amount of acidity depended upon the Si/Al ratio of mesoporous molecular sieves regardless of the type of material. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 14th Saudi-Japan Joint Symposium (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 12/5-6/2004).