Hydrocracking of vacuum gas oil-vegetable oil mixtures for biofuels production

Hydrocracking of vacuum gas oil (VGO) - vegetable oil mixtures is a prominent process for the production of biofuels. In this work both pre-hydrotreated and non-hydrotreated VGO are assessed whether they are suitable fossil components in a VGO-vegetable oil mixture as feed-stocks to a hydrocracking process. This assessment indicates the necessity of a VGO pre-hydrotreated step prior to hydrocracking the VGO-vegetable oil mixture. Moreover, the comparison of two different mixing ratios suggests that higher vegetable oil content favors hydrocracking product yields and qualities. Three commercial catalysts of different activity are utilized in order to identify a range of products that can be produced via a hydrocracking route. Finally, the effect of temperature on hydrocracking VGO-vegetable oil mixtures is studied in terms of conversion and selectivity to diesel, jet/kerosene and naphtha. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.