Effects of pore diameter of carbon nanotubes and SBA-15 supports on hydrotreating of heavy gas oil from Athabasca bitumen over Ni-Mo catalysts

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In recent years, government regulations require for the production and use of more environmentally friendly fuels with lower contents of sulfur and aromatics. Petroleum industries are facing tremendous challenges due to more stringent environmental regulations coupled with increasing reliance on heavy crude oil sands derived bitumen. Syncrude Canada Ltd. currently produces 250,000 bbl/day of synthetic crude oil from the oil sand. The heavy gas oil, which is a major component of this synthetic crude oil contains higher amounts of sulfur (~ 4 wt%) and nitrogen (~0.4 wt.%), compared to conventional light crude, which need to be removed to meet specifications of downstream refining processes, such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and hydrocracking producing gasoline and diesel for end use. Removal of sulfur and nitrogen from the oil, therefore, enhances the operations and economics of downstream refineries by reducing catalyst deactivation as well as producing cleaner transportation fuel having less environment impact. Currently, the sulfur and nitrogen contaminants are being removed from the heavy gas oil by hydrotreating in the presence of 7-A12O3 supported NiMo sulfide catalyst. Although the removal of sulfur is relatively easy, it is difficult to remove nitrogen from oil sands derived oils with above hydrotreating catalyst. It is well known that the catalytic performance of Ni-Mo hydrotreating catalyst depends on the support used to a certain extent, since the surface properties vary with the changes of the support. The present research proposal aims at the development of highly active Ni-Mo sulfide catalysts supported on wide pore SB A-15 and CNTs for hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of Athabasca bitumen derived heavy gas oil (HGO).The use of mesoporous SBA-15 and CNTs as support for NiMo hydrotreating catalyst will facilitate the removal of N and S atoms from the bulky molecules of heavy crude oil. This will help the participating industry, Syncrude Canada Ltd. to improve the quality of gas oil, which will meet specifications of downstream refining processes. This research also benefits Canada by efficient utilization of its vast oil sand resources.