High-temperature coal tar contains a high content of
heavy components,
and the mechanism of its hydrogenation to fuel oil has not been completely
revealed at present. In this work, clean environmental friendly fuel
oil was obtained from wide fraction high-temperature coal tar (WHTCT)
hydrotreated in a three-stage continuous pilot-scale trickle bed reactor
filled with commercial catalysts. The effect of reaction temperature
(345–405 °C), reaction pressure (10–18 MPa), and
LHSV (0.2–0.4 h–1) on the product properties
was investigated while the hydrogen/oil ratio remained constant (2000:1).
Simultaneously, four lumped kinetic models were established to study
the effects of reaction conditions on each component and interconversion
between them. The results showed that the increase in temperature
and pressure and the decrease in LHSV can effectively improve the
quality of products. Under the reaction conditions of a temperature
of 390 °C, a pressure of 16 MPa, an LHSV of 0.25 h–1, and a hydrogen/oil ratio of 2000:1, the S and N in the feedstocks
can be reduced from 4600 and 6800 μg/g to 24.06 and 14.32 μg/g
in the products, respectively. So WHTCT can be used as a suitable
feed to obtain gasoline and low-freezing point diesel blending components
through hydrogenation. Tail oil (TO) can easily be converted into
diesel fraction (DF) and gasoline fraction (GF) with high selectivity.
DF can be converted into GF only at higher temperatures, and GF hardly
undergoes cracking to gas. The established kinetic model can accurately
predict the content of TO, DF, GF, and gas of the products. Therefore,
the results can provide a certain valuable reference for further development
of industrial applications.