Hydrocracking of soybean oil using zeolite–alumina composite supported NiMo catalysts

Composite supports were prepared by kneading various zeolites (USY (SiO2/Al2O3 = 14), HY (5.5), Beta (37), ZSM-5 (90) and ZSM-5 (1770)) (25 wt%), commercial alumina (60 wt%) and alumina-sol (15 wt% as Al2O3) with water. Supported NiMo catalysts were successfully prepared by the conventional impregnation method with the composites. The reactant soybean oil was hydrocracked with these catalysts. Conversion of soybean oil reached almost 100% for every catalyst even at 325 °C the lowest temperature used while the products largely depended on the kinds of zeolite. NiMo/Al2O3 and NiMo/25USY(14)60A mainly produced diesel fractions and, specifically the latter catalyst improved iso-/n-ratio contributing low-temperature stability of diesel oil. The cetane number of diesel fractions of them reached 80. For the case of NiMo/25Beta(37)60A produced about 70% of gasoline fraction and RON value reached more than 80. As a result, it was found that gasoline and diesel fractions could be prepared selectively by choosing the proper kind of zeolite in the zeolite–alumina composite supported NiMo catalysts.