Hydrodesulfurization performance of an ex-situ presulfided MoNiP/γ-Al2O3 hydrotreating catalyst

The main purpose of the hydrotreating of petroleum feedstocks is the catalytic conversion of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. The composition of the presulfiding agent and the start-up parameters of the presulfided catalyst such as the activation time and temperature were studied. Dibenzothiophene's (DBT) HDS efficiency was adopted to be the evaluating standard. When the total sulfur addition was 1.4 times the stoichiometric addition, the HDS efficiency was the best, which could reach 94%. The main products were biphenyl and cyclohexyl benzene. Almost every ex-situ presulfided catalyst had good HDS efficiency of over 90%, among which the best could even reach 99%. The catalyst activated at 300°C for 2 hr was the best and prolonged activation could achieve better hydrogenation activity but worse HDS performance. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 229th ACS National Meeting (San Diego, CA 3/13-17/2005).