Abstract The stringent environment legislation request high standard of diesel to reduce the vehicle emissions, thus lower fuels densities and higher cetane numbers (CN) are required. One process to address this issue is selective ring opening of decalin to reduce the number of ring structures, while retaining the carbon number of a product molecule. This paper describes the mechanism of ring opening reaction of decalin and emphasized the importance of B-acid sites, then the acidity, porosity of zeolites are briefly introduced. Y zeolite is suitable for ring opening of decalin, the metal function is also discussed and two typical modes of adsorption of cycloalkanes in the metals of Pt, Ir have been compared. In the end, the future development is also given.
2012, Vol. 29 
