In this work, biocrude vapors generated from hydrothermal conversion of Pongammia pinnata cake using high pressure reactor at 400 degrees C and 25 kg/cm(2) were upgraded over three mesoporous catalyst namely SBA-15, KIT-6 and FDU-12. The catalysts were synthesized, aluminated and characterized using X-Ray Diffraction, N-2 adsorption-desorption, SEM techniques. A decrease in the surface area was observed on all three mesoporous catalyst after alumina loading with negligible effect on the pore diameter. Purely siliceous catalysts were found to give negligible effect on the yield of different product phases. Alumina supported SBA-15 (SAR 30) was observed as the suitable catalyst as compared to Al/FDU-12 (SAR 30) and Al/KIT-6 (SAR 30) for maximizing the biocrude yield with low heavy hydrocarbons (46.3 +/- 2.2%), poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (17.1%) and acidic compounds (9.1%) content. Therefore series of SBA-15 were synthesized by varying silicon to alumina ratio between 20 and 50 for maximizing hydrocarbons with boiling cut fractions between 195 and 317 degrees C corresponding to gasoline range hydrocarbons. Al/SBA-15(SAR 40) was found to give highest biocrude yield (similar to 34.8%) with highest selectivity towards gasoline fraction (23.7 +/- 1.9%). GC/MS analysis was used to confirm the presence of aliphatic and aromatics. Highest asphaltene content was observed with Al/SBA-15 (SAR 50). (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.