Hydrodearomatization of petroleum fuel fractions on silica supported Ni–W sulphide with increased stacking number of the WS2 phase☆

Ni–W catalysts supported on commercial γ-alumina and silica displayed similar activity in dibenzothiophene hydrodesulfurization (DBT HDS), while the activity of the Ni–W/SiO2 catalyst in toluene hydrogenation (HYD) was 6 times higher compared with Ni–W/Al2O3. The dearomatization performance of Ni–W/SiO2 catalyst was tested over a wide range of operation conditions with naphtha and middle distillates. 90% saturation of aromatics in FCC naphtha (340 °C, LHSV of 1 h−1) and 50% in Light cyclic oil (LCO) (360 °C, LHSV of 1 h−1) was achieved at 5.4 MPa. In a two stage process with the same Ni–W/SiO2 and intermediate separation of hydrogen sulphide 90% saturation of aromatics in LCO was achieved at 320 °C and total LHSV of 0.5 h−1. At equal conditions, Ni–W/Al2O3 catalyst yielded 1.5–4 times lower total aromatics saturation.