Diaromatics are the predominant molecular species in light cycle oil (LCO), that need to be converted to monoaromatics. Catalytic cracking of LCO and its model compounds was performed over monometallic (Co, Mo) and bimetallic (CoMo) catalysts supported over Beta and Y zeolite. Instead of hydrogen, n-hexadecane was used as the hydrogen donor under FCC conditions, which has the potential to reduce the process costs. The catalysts were synthesized by wet impregnation, and their performance was evaluated in a fixed-bed micro activity testing (MAT) reactor setup at 500 <sup>o</sup>C and 1 atm. CoMo/Beta catalyst resulted in the maximum monoaromatics yield of 32.7% at 73.8% conversion of LCO in the presence of n-hexadecane, whereas in the absence of n-hexadecane, the corresponding monoaromatics yield was 25.3% at 48.6% LCO conversion. Thus, n-hexadecane serves as an effective hydrogen donor to promote the hydrogen transfer reactions and results in a higher yield of the desired product. The amount of coke also decreased in the presence of n-hexadecane. The monoaromatics yield for various catalysts followed the order: CoMo/Beta &gt; CoMo/Y &gt; Mo/Beta &gt; Co/Beta &gt; Mo/Y &gt; Co/Y &gt; Beta &gt; Y, whereas the coke formation followed the reverse order, with CoMo/Beta resulting in the minimum coke formation. The improved catalytic activity of the bimetallic catalysts as compared to monometallic catalysts and commercial zeolites is attributed to the synergistic effect between Co and Mo. Metallic dispersion and interaction of Co and Mo with the support was confirmed using XRD, Raman, FTIR, UV-DRS, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and XPS.

Bifunctional catalysts for cracking of light cycle oil into monoaromatics using a hydrogen donor

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