Bifunctional catalysts consisting of palladium on amorphous silica-alumina with different metal loadings (0 wt% to 1.2 wt%) were compared in the hydrocracking/hydroisomerization of n-hexadecane. The reaction conditions were: pressure = 30 bar; temperature = 310 degrees C; hydrogen-to-hexadecane feed molar ratio = 10. Metal loading was found to have a remarkable influence on the initial deactivation rate, which could be related to the formation of carbonaceous deposits. The dependence of activity on the metal-acid site ratio was the typical one for bifunctional hydrocracking where, after reaching a threshold value, the catalytic activity does not appreciably increase with increasing metal loading. On the Pd-containing catalysts, the methane space-time-yield showed a strong dependence on conversion, but no clear relationship with metal surface area, indicating that the formation of methane might not proceed by purely metal-catalyzed hydrogenolysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.