Abstract
In the European Union the demand for middle distillates is growing, while a decrease in gasoline demand can be observed. Even the most complex refineries are not able to produce the economic yield distribution from the processed crude oil which constantly meets the changing market demand. The growing need for gasoil can be more and more exclusively satisfied by using unconventional feedstocks, such as bio-originated resources and less valuable refinery streams.
The possibilities of quality upgrade of mixtures containing straight run gasoil, light cycle oil and waste animal grease in different ratios were examined during the series of experiments. The effects of the main reaction conditions (temperature: 300 - 380 °C, pressure: 40 - 70 bar, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV):0.75 -3.0 h-1 H2/feed ratio: 600 Nm3/m3) on the quality and quantity of products were studied. A favourable reaction parameter combination was chosen to reach the total conversion of triglycerides into alkanes, thesaturation of significant part of the aromatic compounds and the desulphurization of straight run gas oil took place. The high cetane number of alkanes, produced during the conversion of triglycerides, compensate the low cetane number of products from the saturation of aromatic components.