Catalytic Hydrocracking of Phenanthrene over NiMo/Al₂O₃, CoMo/Al₂O₃ Catalysts and Metal-loaded Y-Zeolites

The preliminary experiments on hydrocracking of phenanthrene were carried out at a reaction temperature of 400° C for 1 h, with an initial hydrogen pressure of 7 Mpa. Three kinds of metal-ion exchanged Y-zeolites (NiH-Y, FeH-Y, LaH-Y) and H-Y zeolite were prepared and their catalytic behaviors were investigated. Two commercial catalysts (NiMo/Al₂O₃ and CoMo/Al₂O₃) were used as references. It was found that NiH-Y zeolite had the highest hydrocracking activity and conversion of phenanthrene reached 81%. At the same time, comparatively high yields of alkylbenzenes and alkylnaphthalenes were attained. H-Y and LaH-Y zeolites both gave similar results, attaining comparatively low conversion of 46%. FeH-Y zeolite showed lower activity but higher selectivity toward formation of partially hydrogenated phenanthrene. The order of conversion of phenanthrene and the yields of benzenes and naphthalenes were as follows: NiH-Y>H-Y≈LaH-Y≈NiMo/Al₂O₃≈CoMo/Al₂O₃>FeH-Y. The results of the present study showed that Ni-loaded Y-zeolite has a high potential for the production of fine chemicals from hydrocracking of phenanthrene.