Effects of catalyst morphology on hydrotreating reactions

Due to the new environmental regulations for fuel quality, refineries need to process cleaner fuel. This requires an improvement in performance of hydrotreating catalysts. Improvements in catalyst activity require knowledge of the relationships between catalyst morphology and activity. Molybdenum sulfide, the generally agreed catalysts that give the best performance in hydrocracking and hydrotreating was investigated for its morphology effects on hydrotreating reactions. Three types of MoS2 catalysts with different morphology were studied. They are crystalline MoS2, exfoliated MoS2 and MoS2 derived from a precursor, molybdenum naphthenate. Exfoliated MoS2 with minimal long range order, with much higher rim edges has shown relative higher hydrogenation activity. Generally, results of MoS2 catalyst activities in hydrogenation, hydrodesulfurization, hydrodenitrogenation and hydrideoxygenation are in agreement with the rim-edge model