Ring opening process

1. A single stage process for desulfurization and ring opening of a sulphur containing hydrocarbon feedstock comprising:

contacting said feedstock with hydrogen and a catalyst at a pressure of less than 100 barg to produce a ring opened product, wherein said catalyst comprises

(I) a combination of molecular sieves consisting of at least one zeolite which has a faujasite structure and at least one a fibrous zeolite which substantially comprises non-crossing one-dimensional channels selected from the group consisting of; and

(II) a composition comprising at least one metal selected from group VIB of the periodic table and at least one metal from group VIII.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the zeolite with the faujasite structure and/or the fibrous zeolite are at least partially in the H-form.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the channels of the fibrous zeolite have at least eight-ring-channels.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein said catalyst further comprises a binder.

5. The process of claim 4 , wherein the binder is an aluminum compound.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein said at least one metal from group VIB of the periodic table and at least one metal from group VIII are in the form of their oxides, sulphates, nitrates, complex compounds or organic metal salts.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst comprises a nickel compound and a tungsten or molybdenum compound.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein the nickel compound is present in an amount of 1 to 10 weight-% and the tungsten or molybdenum component in an amount of 2to 30 weight-% with respect to the total weight of the catalyst.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein said feedstock comprises light gas oil, heavy gas oil, a vacuum distillate, vacuum gas oil, coker gas oil, or light cycle oil.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein said feedstock comprises heavy or light gas oil.

11. The process of claim 10 , wherein said feedstock comprises straight run heavy gas oil.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein the boiling point of the hydrocarbon feedstock is in the range from 150 to 550° C.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein the density of the hydrocarbon feedstock is greater than 845 kg/m 3 .

14. The process of claim 13 , wherein the density of the ring opened product is less than 845 kg/m 3 .

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock has a sulphur content of at least 1000 ppm (by weight).

16. The process of claim 1 , wherein the ring opened product has a sulphur content of less than 20 ppm (by weight).

17. The process of claim 1 , wherein said ring opening process is carried out at a temperature in the range from 350 to 400° C.

18. The process of claim 1 , wherein said ring opening process is carried out at a pressure of 10 to 100 barg.

19. The process of claim 1 , wherein said ring opening process is carried out at a LHSV of less than 1/h.

20. The process of claim 1 , wherein 95% of the ring opened product has a boiling point of less than 395° C.

21. The process of claim 1 , wherein the ring opened product, after any fraction having a boiling point below 150° C. has been removed, has a cetane number of at least 51.

22. The process of claim 1 , wherein the density of the ring opened product is 25 kg/m 3 less than that of the feedstock.

23. The process of claim 1 , wherein the density of the ring opened product, after any fraction having a boiling point below 150° C. has been removed is at least 25 kg/m 3 less than the feedstock.

24. The process of claim 1 , wherein an amount of monoaromatics in the ring opened product is reduced to less than 15 wt%, an amount of diaromatics is reduced to less than 2 wt% and an amount of triaromatics is reduced to less than 0.5 wt%.

25. The process of claim 1 , wherein an amount of naphtha component (i.e. liquid components boiling below 150° C.) produced during the process is less than 15% wt of the ring opened product.

26. The process of claim 25 , wherein the yield of hydrocarbon gases is less than 5 wt%.