EFFECTS OF CATALYST MORPHOLOGY ONHYDROTREATING REACTIONS

Due to the new environmental regulations for fuel quality, refineries need toprocess cleaner fuel. This requires an improvement in performance ofhydrotreating catalysts. Improvements in catalyst activity require knowledge ofthe relationships between catalyst morphology and activity. Molybdenumsulfide, the generally agreed catalysts that give the best performance inhydrocracking and hydrotreating was investigated for its morphology effects onhydrotreating reactions. Three types of MoS2 catalysts with differentmorphology were studied. They are crystalline MoS2, exfoliated MoS2 andMoS2 derived from a precursor, molybdenum naphthenate. Exfoliated MoS2with minimal long range order, with much higher rim edges has shown relativehigher hydrogenation activity. Generally, results of MoS2 catalyst activities inhydrogenation, hydrodesulfurization, hydrodenitrogenation and hydrideoxygenationare in agreement with the rim-edge model.