Liquid hydrocarbon fuels from catalytic cracking of rubber seed oil using USY as catalyst

•USY is used as catalyst in the cracking of RSO.•USY has shown good stability.•USY exhibited higher catalytic performance than traditional base catalysts.•The cracking product has chemical composition similar to gasoline based fuels.•RSO can be used to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The catalytic cracking of rubber seed oil (RSO) to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels using USY (ultrastable Y zeolite) as a heterogeneous catalyst has been studied. Under the optimum cracking conditions of RSO 10g, m(USY)/m(RSO)=1:50, and 420°C for 90min, the yield of liquid product reached 75.6%, and the chemical composition and properties of the liquid fuel were similar to those of gasoline-based fuels (C8–C9 content >70%, low acid value, good cold-flow properties, and high calorific value). The stability of USY has been studied, and the results showed that it could be reused with negligible loss of activity over at least six cycles. USY appears to be a suitable heterogeneous catalyst for the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels from RSO.