Catalytic Cracking of Gas Oil Derived from Heavy Crude Oil over Biochar-Based Catalyst

In this study, the main target is to obtain high grade light commercial motor fuels from the catalytic cracking of the gas oil fraction by using a modified green catalyst biochar. For this aim, initially the biochar has been impregnated with the spent pickling liquor to acquire a catalyst being strong cracking activity under certain conditions. By using of the catalyst activated via the spent pickling liquor, the catalytic cracking runs have been carried out on the gas oil at different catalyst additive rates in ranging from 5 wt.% to 20 wt.% to obtain light liquid hydrocarbon fractions at the temperature of 500° C and heating rate of 10 °C/min. The n-pentane soluble fraction of the catalytic cracking liquid obtained from the use of activated char catalyst at additive rate of 20 wt.% has a low sulphur content and also consisted of short straight chain paraffinic hydrocarbons with carbon number of C₁₃, C₁₇, and C₁₈ compared to those of the thermal and non-activated catalyst. Consequently, the activated catalyst has a considerable potential as a green catalyst with low cost for the converting of heavy hydrocarbons into light and more valuable hydrocarbons.