Thermal and catalytic pyrolysis of vacuum gas oil using HZSM-5: TG and PY-CG/MS study

ABSTRACTThe zeolite HZSM-5, was synthesized in the absence of an organic template. The characterization of zeolite HZSM-5 was performed by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms and scanning electron microscopy. For catalytic tests, applying the free kinetic model, it was observed that the activation energy for the pyrolysis of pure VGO was of 82 kJ mol−1 and for VGO/HZSM-5, the value decreased to approximately 60 kJ mol−1, demonstrating the effectiveness of the acid sites effect of zeolite ZSM-5 for the VGO pyrolysis resulting in production of gas, gasoline and diesel.