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Modulating the Reaction Pathway of Ni2P/Al2O3 by Introducing Different Noble Metals for Hydrodesulfurization of
Shuhui Zhou1, Yu Pan1, Yan Wang1
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Regulating the reaction pathway of a hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst to achieve ultradeep desulfurization of diesel is a low-energy-consumption yet effective strategy but remains a tricky challenge. Herein, we present a Ni2P/Al2O3 catalyst with mesoporous properties synthesized by a facile hydrothermal-temperature-programmed reduction and normal impregnation (TPRI) method, and then different precious metals with similar loadings were introduced to prepare M-Ni2P/Al2O3 (M = Pt, Pd) catalysts through incipient wetness impregnation. Their structures were analyzed by a series of characterization methods, and their catalytic performances were examined for 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) HDS. The correlation characterization results revealed that the kind of precious metals significantly affected the surface acidity and then the metal-support interaction (MSI) between Ni2P and Al2O3. Among them, the Pt-Ni2P/Al2O3 catalyst exhibits superior HDS activity with 88.5% 4,6-DMDBT conversion to Pd-Ni2P/Al2O3 (76.3%) and pristine Ni2P/Al2O3 (58.6%) catalysts under reaction conditions of 3.4 MPa, 340 °C, and LHSV = 4.8 h-1. This should be due to the introduction of Pt, which significantly facilitates the dissociation rate of H2 and the subsequent generation of more active hydrogen species than Pd, thereby promoting the formation of Brønsted acid sites, remarkably facilitating the isomerization (ISO) pathway, and markedly enhancing the 4,6-DMDBT HDS conversion of Pt-Ni2P/Al2O3. This work provides an efficient protocol to tame the reaction pathway and thereafter the catalytic performance of the HDS catalyst in the future.
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