Hydrocracking of oil sand bitumen with oil-soluble Nickel catalysts at temparatures between 710-790°?F, reaction time between 0-120min . and 1, 000psi of initial hydrogen pressure has been investigated.
Catalysts were prepeared as shown below:
11.4g of catalyst feed (Table 2), 20g of propionic acid, 15g of benzoic acid, 15g of stearic acid, 50g of 2-ethyl-hexanoic acid, 50g of iso-octane and 0.1g of water were mixed and reacted under the conditions given in Table 3.
The reactions were carried out in 300m
l-autoclave. The experiments resulted in reducing the pentane-insolubles (PI) in the bitumen by oil-soluble catalysts.
(1) Under the conditions of 60min., 1, 000psi (H
2) and CAT-6, the best temperature to reduce the PI in product oil was 750°F.
(2) Under the conditions of 750°F, 1, 000psi (H
2) and CAT-6, the yield of PI kept decreasing up to 120min. of reaction time. A longer reaction time was better than a higher reaction temperature for PI reduction.
(3) The oil-soluble Ni catalyst from 92mol%-NiO/Ni (OH)
2 had the higher activity for PI reduction than one from 100mol%-Ni (OH)
2.
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