Hydrocracking of petroleum gas oil over NiW/MCM-48-USY composite catalyst

MCM-48-USY composite materials were prepared by coating USY zeolite by a layer of MCM-48 mesoporous material at different meso/microporous ratios (SiO2/USY ratios of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) and used as support for nickel and tungsten. The NiW/MCM-48-USY catalysts were prepared using the incipient wetness method. The prepared catalysts were characterized by TPD-TGA acidity, TGA thermal stability, BET surface area, pore volume, pore size, XRD, SEM and TEM and then tested for hydrocracking of petroleum gas oil at reaction temperature of 450 °C, contact time of 90 min and catalyst to gas oil ratio of 0.04. In all prepared samples, the catalyst activity and properties were improved with increasing SiO2/USY ratio and found that maximum values of a total conversion and liquid product (total distillate fuels) were obtained at SiO2/USY ratio of 0.5. Finally, the obtained results from hydrocracking of gas oil over composite MCM-48-USY catalysts were compared with those obtained over physically mixed USY and MCM-48 catalysts.