Hydrocracking, especially hydrodemetallization, of residual oils with the red mud catalyst was carried out using a batch reactor and the following results were obtained:
(1) Atmospheric and vacuum residues were treated under the following conditions, i.e., reaction temperature 400°C, reaction pressure 150-160kg/cm2, reaction time 60min, removing 80-90% vanadium and nickel, 30-40% sulfur and 30-50% asphaltene.
(2) Hydrodemetallization was promoted by the advance of hydrocracking, and in order to remove approximately 80% of vanadium at least 3mol/kg-oil or over of hydrogen was required.
(3) When the non-treated red mud was compared with the pre-sulfurized red mud, both the hydrocracking activity and the hydrodemetallization activity were low. However, after 60min, at 400°C, the generated hydrogen sulfide sulfurized the red mud, and the activity of the non-treated catalyst was approximately the same as the pre-sulfurized catalyst.
(4) The asphaltene removal was most strongly influenced by the reaction pressure and when the reaction pressure was under 110kg/cm2 the carbonization reaction proceeded. Thus the pressure of 150-160kg/cm2 was selected.
(5) While this hydrodemetallization reaction is believed to be effective as a pretreatment process of direct hydrodesulfurization, an additional work such as pelletizing the red mud or experiments using a flow reactor are necessary.
