Catalytic activities of Co(Ni)Mo/TiO 2–Al 2O 3 catalysts in gasoil and thiophene HDS and pyridine HDN: effect of the TiO 2–Al 2O 3 composition

Abstract

The effect of the TiO 2–Al 2O 3 mixed oxide support composition on the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of gasoil and the simultaneous HDS and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of gasoil+pyridine was studied over two series of CoMo and NiMo catalysts. The intrinsic activities for gasoil HDS and pyridine HDN were significantly increased by increasing the amount of TiO 2 into the support, and particularly over rich- and pure-TiO 2-based catalysts. It is suggested that the increase in activity be due to an improvement in reducing and sulfiding of molybdena over TiO 2. The inhibiting effect of pyridine on gasoil HDS was found to be similar for all the catalysts, i.e., was independent of the support composition. The ranking of the catalysts for the gasoil HDS test differed from that obtained for the thiophene test at different hydrogen pressures. In the case of gasoil HDS, the activity increases with TiO 2 content and large differences are observed between the catalysts supported on pure Al 2O 3 and pure TiO 2. In contrast, in the case of the thiophene test, the pure Al 2O 3-based catalyst appeared relatively more active than the catalysts supported on mixed oxides. Also, in the thiophene test the difference in intrinsic activity between the pure Al 2O 3-based catalyst appeared relatively more active than the catalysts supported on mixed oxides. Also in the thiophene test, the difference in intrinsic activity between the pure Al 2O 3- and pure TiO 2-based catalysts is relatively small and dependent on the H 2 pressure used. Such differences in activity trend among the gasoil and the thiophene tests are due to a different sensitivity of the catalysts (by different support or promoter) to the experimental conditions used. The results of the effect of the H 2 partial pressure on the thiophene HDS, and on the effect of H 2S concentration on gasoil HDS demonstrate the importance of these parameters, in addition to the nature of the reactant, to perform an adequate catalyst ranking.