Study on the Effect of Structure and Acidity of Hydrocracking Catalyst Support on the Selectivity of Middle Distillate

Hydrocracking has become the main technology for producing diesel fuel in many refineries, the key process to meeting new product specifications as environmental regulations for transportation fuels become more stringent. The efficacy of the hydrocracking catalyst is a pivotal determinant of the reaction performance. This study leveraged high-throughput experimentation to closely examine the impact of support properties on both the catalytic activity and the selectivity of middle distillates. The findings show that the catalyst's activity is mainly controlled by the amount of Bronsted acid sites and the presence of strong Lewis acid sites within the carrier. An inverse relationship was observed between middle distillate selectivity and catalyst activity, highlighting a trade-off between these two measures of performance. Furthermore, the hydrocracking performance index (HPI), serving as a composite measure of catalyst efficacy, revealed that an optimal pore size and strong Bronsted acidity are important for increasing the HPI value, thereby signifying enhanced catalytic performance. The experimental result matches the bimolecular hydrogen transfer reaction, which is essential in determining the hydrocracking performance index (HPI) value.