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The hydrotreating of vegetable oils and animal fats is a possible way to produce a high-quality renewable diesel fuel component. It can be produced by processing the bio-raw material in new units or by the co-pro-cessing of the renewable raw material together with the petroleum middle distillates in existing hydrotreating units. This work was focused on investigating the effect of the hydrogen to the feedstock ratio on the hydrotreating of a mixture of petroleum middle distillates and rapeseed oil in a weight ratio of 8:2 in a tubular fixed-bed reactor. The hydrotreating was performed using a sulfided Ni-Mo/Al2O3 catalyst, a temperature of 345 °C, a WHSV of 1.0 h-1, a pressure of 4.0 MPa and a hydrogen to the feedstock ratio in the range of 120-600 m3∙m-3. The hydrogen to feedstock ratio of 120 m3∙m-3 was not sufficient to desulfurise the feedstock to the level of 10 mg∙kg-1. On the contrary, increasing the hydrogen to feedstock ratio to above 240 m3∙m-3 had no significant effect on the yield and quality of the obtained products. Therefore, the ratio of 240 m3∙m-3 was considered as sufficient for the hydrotreating of the mixture of the petroleum middle distillates and rapeseed oil.

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