Hydrocracking of low-temperature coal tar over NiMo/Beta-KIT-6 catalyst to produce gasoline oil

Abstract In current study, NiMo catalysts supported on micro-mesoporous composite material Beta-KIT-6 were prepared and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, BET and NH 3 -TPD. This micro-mesoporous composite catalyst was employed in hydrocracking of low-temperature coal tar (LTCT) for the first time on a fixed-bed reactor. The effects of temperature, pressure, weight hourly space velocity and hydrogen/oil ratio on hydrocracking performance were examined. The research octane number (RON) value and paraffins (P), olefins (O), naphthenes (N) and aromatics (A), i.e. PONA content of gasoline fraction was determined. The yield of light oil (≤ 300 °C) can reach 95% including gasoline fraction (≤ 180 °C) accounting for 88% and diesel fraction (180–300 °C) for 7%. Sulfur and nitrogen contents were significantly reduced from 0.67 and 1.79 wt% in the feed to below 50 and 20 mg kg − 1 in the gasoline, respectively. Besides, the RON value of gasoline can reach 79. The results indicated that raw LTCT could be considerably upgraded by catalytic hydrocracking over the prepared catalyst, which may offer a route for further processing and application of LTCT.