Effect of synthesis technique on the activity of CoNiMo tri-metallic catalyst for hydrotreating of heavy gas oil

Sandeep Badoga, Arvind Ganesan, Ajay K. Dalai, Shri Chand

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

The γ-Al2O3 supported CoNiMo tri-metallic catalysts were synthesized by four different procedures involving the variation in metal impregnation sequence. The catalysts were characterized using XRD, BET, HR-TEM, H2-TPR, Raman, and CO chemisorption techniques. All catalysts were tested for the hydrotreating of bitumen-derived heavy gas oil in a continuous fixed bed reactor operating at typical industrial conditions of 9.0 MPa, 375–395 °C, 1 h−1 liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) and gas to oil ratio of 600:1 ml/ml. The hydrotreating activity of tri-metallic catalysts is compared with that of bimetallic NiMo/γ-Al2O3 and CoMo/γ-Al2O3 catalysts. It was found that various synthesis procedures have a different impact on metal dispersion. The impregnation of Ni prior to Co results in higher dispersion of molybdenum as seen from XRD. The tri-metallic catalyst Co-NiMo/γ-Al2O3 (1.5Co 2.0Ni 13.0Mo/γ-Al2O3) synthesized has shown 8% and 38% higher hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) activity as compared to that shown by bimetallic catalysts. The higher activity shown by tri-metallic CoNiMo catalysts is ascribed to the double promotional effect of Co and Ni and formation of three types of active phases NiMoS, CoMoS and Ni-CoMoS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)160-171
Number of pages12
JournalCatalysis Today
Volume291
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CoNiMo
  • Heavy gas oil
  • Hydrodenitrogenation
  • Hydrodesulfurization
  • Tri-metallic catalysts

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