Cracking of Heavy Hydrocarbon Feedstock in the Presence of Cobalt

Abstract

Heavy oils are more than 70 % of the world proven oil reserves that makes it an urgent problem of modern refinery to improve the efficiency and oil conversion ratio. Cobalt powders and one-stage prepared cobalt-based catalysts were first tested for tar cracking at the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery Plant. XRD, SEM and TPR techniques were used for studying the compositions and properties of the prepared samples. It was shown that the cobalt surface contained oxygen in the form of layer-by-layer stacked Co₃O₄ and CoO; the mechanical activation of the catalysts resulted in redistribution of the oxide quantities and in changes in the composition of tar cracking products. The mechanoactivated cobalt was more active to tar cracking than the initial powder. The yield of light fractions was 70 % in the presence of the mechanoactivated cobalt that was 10 wt % higher than with non-activated cobalt and 25 % higher than in the absence of cobalt.