SELECTIVE NUCLEAR HYDROGENATION OF NAPHTHALENE, ANTHRACENE AND COAL-DERIVED OIL OVER RU SUPPORTED ON MIXED-OXIDE

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the possible ways t o produce high-quality products for transportation fuels from heavy di stillates. For this purpose, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 wt% Ru, supported on three kinds of metallic oxide supports, Ru/ Mn2O3-ZnO, Ru/Mn2O3-NiO and Ru/Mn2O3-La2O3, were used as catalysts for selective nuclear hydr ogenation of naphthalene, anthracene, and Canadian Battle River-coal-d erived oil. The catalysts exhibited activity in the following order: R u/Mn2O3-NiO>Ru/Mn2O3-ZnO>Ru/Mn2O3-La2O3. The Ru/Mn2O3-NiO catalyst sho wed the lowest exothermic temperature, corresponding to a decrease of differential pressure of hydrogen observed in the high-pressure DTA, a nd gave the largest H/Ru values among the catalysts determined by hydr ogen chemisorption. The Ru/Mn2O3(O.19)-NiO(0.81) among them showed the best performance for the reaction; it yielded 33 mol% of decalins fro m naphthalene and 49 mol% of perhydroanthracene from anthracene. The c atalyst also converted 59 mol% of aromatic hydrogen to hydrogen at bet a- and gamma-positions of aromatic hydrocarbons in the coal liquid. Th e temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) spectra of hydrogen and ammo nia on the catalysts were measured to find the influence of acidity of supports for the catalytic activity. It was concluded that Ru on nona cidic support, which is Mn2O3-NiO, showed the best performance, and a 0.1 wt% Ru loading on the Mn2O3-NiO was sufficiently effective for the selective nuclear hydrogenation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.