Revealing the Effect of Catalyst Concentration on the Process of Fuel Oil Refining Using the TECHNOLOGY of Aerosol Nano Catalysis

The primary oil processing product is a mixture of different hydrocarbons. One of the hard-to-process petroleum products is fuel oil. This paper considers a method to derive clear (light) fractions of petroleum products by the catalytic processing of fuel oil on a zeolite-containing catalyst at 1 atm under the technological conditions of aerosol nanocatalysis. The prospect of the catalytic processing of a viscous residue ‒ fuel oil ‒ has been analyzed and estimated. The process is carried out by dispersing the catalytically active component in a vibratory-fluidized layer. Chemical transformation occurs during the constant mechanochemical activation of catalyst particles by forming an aerosol cloud in the reactive volume. Natural zeolite catalyst of the type Y was selected for research. Methods for separating the gasoline and diesel fractions of light hydrocarbons and for analyzing the gas phase have been given. The effect of the concentration of zeolite catalyst aerosol on the composition of cracking products (the yield of the gasoline and diesel fractions of light hydrocarbons) has been studied. It is noted that the rate of the course of fuel oil processing in the aerosol of the catalyst is 1.5‒2 times higher than that in thermal processing. It has been found that in fuel oil processing based on the aerosol nanocatalysis technology, the concentration of the catalyst can be controlled to produce the final product. The study results have shown that the optimal conditions for processing fuel oil in the aerosol of the catalyst should be considered 773 K, a frequency of 5 Hz, a pressure of 1 atm. At the same time, a concentration of the catalyst of 1‒5 g/m3 should be considered optimal for the output of a light fraction of hydrocarbons. In this case, the yield is up to 80 % of the fraction in the laboratory. It was found out that during the processing of fuel oil, the concentration of the catalyst makes it possible to optimize the output of light oil products under the technological conditions of aerosol nanocatalysi