Promotion of the Inactive Iron Sulfide to an Efficient Hydrodesulfurization Catalyst

Abstract

Extensive efforts have been devoted to developing desulfurization catalysts to effectively remove sulfur from fuel. Active phase metals including cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, and tungsten have been extensively used in industry for hydrotreating/hydrodesulfurization catalysts for over 50 years. However, while it is desirable to use inexpensive materials to do the same job, it is a grand challenge. Herein, we report a Fe-based sulfide catalyst that is tuned by zinc with high activity for HDS, which shows an industrial application potential to replace industrial Mo-based catalysts. With an optimal configuration that has a Fe:Zn ratio close to 1:1, the reaction rate constants of the dibenzothiophene (DBT) and 4,6-dimethydibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) HDS are increased by 9.2 and 17.4 times, respectively, in comparison with the sums of those on the monoiron and zinc sulfides. HDS activity for the sterically hindered 4,6-DMDBT on the FeZn sulfide catalyst is even close to that of Co-MoS2. The experimental results ...