Insights into the integrated effects of polymeric pretreatment and catalytic hydrotreatment of light gas oil

Abstract A study has been carried out in detail to measure the effects of the removal of nitrogen compounds on the hydrotreatment of light gas oil (LGO) using a synthesized polymer consisting of a polymer support, copolymer of glycidyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (PGMA‐co‐EDGMA), a π‐acceptor moiety (2,4,5,7‐tetranitrofluorenone, TENF), and a three‐carbon linker (diaminopropane, DAP (3)). The primary focus of this paper is first to study the effects of selectively removing nitrogen compounds on the hydrotreatment of LGOs. Removal of these catalyst inhibiting and poisoning compounds prior to hydrotreatment will help in improving the hydroprocessing efficiency as well as in reducing the chemical fouling, thus improving the catalyst life. Second, the effectiveness on the reusability of bulk polymer after regeneration was studied. To achieve this, nitrogen compounds from LGO were adsorbed on the synthesized polymer by mixing polymer and LGO. The polymer was regenerated by washing with toluene in a Soxhlet apparatus. Hydrotreating experiments were performed in a pilot scale trickle‐bed reactor. To create a baseline for monitoring the hydrotreatment activity, untreated LGO (without polymer adsorption) was hydrotreated with a commercial NiMo/γ‐Al 2 O 3 catalyst and analyzed for nitrogen, sulfur, and aromatics content. The pretreated feed (with polymer adsorption) was also hydrotreated, and the results were compared. The results show that prior selective removal of nitrogen compounds improved overall hydrotreatment activity and resulted in additional decrease of 18.7%, 8.3%, and 9.4% in total nitrogen, sulfur, and aromatics content, respectively.