Opening of the Rings of Aromatic and Naphthene Hydrocarbons: A New Way of Improving the Quality of Fuels

In recent years, the opening of the rings of aromatic and naphthene hydrocarbons has been considered as a way way of improving the quality of motor fuels. In gasolines, the opening of monocyclic compounds like di- and trialkylcyclohexanes allows the synthesis of high-octane components (C-7-C-10 iso-paraffins). In diesel fuels containing considerable amounts of bi- and trinuclear polycyclic compounds such as derivatives of naphthalene (decaline), phenanthrene, and indane, this allows the synthesis of monocyclic compounds and alkanes, thus leading to a reduction in the freezing temperature of the fuel and, when obtaining predominantly linear alkanes, to an increase in the cetane number. In this work, we conduct a brief analysis of accumulated data on the opening of cyclic compounds on oxide and zeolite supported catalysts.