Hydrodesulphurization of thiophene over zirconia and alumina supported Co-Mo catalysts

Abstract

The zirconia supported CoMo catalysts and the commercial sample CoMo/Al2O3 were characterized by XPS measurements and by testing of activity in the HDS of thiophene at 280 °C and 1 MPa of total pressure. The XPS measurements revealed the better reducibility of molybdenum, higher sulphidability of cobalt and the absence of surface sulphur oxidation in the presence of zirconia support. The surface atomic concentration ratios S/Mo were 1.2 and 2.2 for zirconia and alumina supported catalysts, respectively. The activity of the zirconia supported CoMo catalyst normalized to the overal amounts of active metals was lower than that of the commercial CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst.