Influence of the Borate on the Performance of ASA-Al2O3 supported Ni-Mo Hydrocracking Catalyst

The borate-doped and non-borated Ni-Mo/ASA-Al2O3 catalysts have been prepared and characterized by the BET, XRD, TGA, and NH3-TPD analysis. The catalyst’s performance was assessed in n-hexadecane hydrocracking using a downflow fixed bed micro-reactor. The stability of the catalysts in the presence of water and coke deposition was examined for the HCK of non-conventional feeds. The obtained results revealed that borate increased the feed percentage conversion from 91.43 to 99.21% compared to the not borated catalyst. This improvement is mostly due to the promotion of the acidic functions by BO3 addition. Results showed that the addition of borate increased the selectivity of light hydrocarbons and light gaseous products slightly (from 4.64 to 8.76%).