Hydrodeoxygenation of Phenol Over Sulfided CoMo Catalysts Supported on a Mixed Al2O3-TiO2 Oxide

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the effect of the mixed Al2O3-TiO2 oxide (Al/Ti=2, named AT2) support on the support-metal interaction in oxide state, its influence on MoS2 dispersion and its impact on the hydrodeoxygenation of phenol reaction was studied. In contrast with CoMo/Al2O3 catalysts, the use of Al2O3-TiO2 as support tuned favorably the support-metal interaction, increasing the availability of easily reducible CoOX and MoOX species with octahedral coordination, which are recognized as precursors of the active phase. The lower support-metal interaction strength caused a decrease in the dispersion of MoS2 phase. Even so, the sulfided CoMo/AT2 catalyst reached 85 % higher catalytic activity in the hydrodeoxygenation of phenol than CoMo/Al2O3. These increases were explained in terms of the formation of a higher amount of active CoMoS phase, and it is consistent with the increased availability of cobalt promoter for the decoration of MoS2 edges. CoMo/AT2 catalyst was more resistant to inhibition by CS2 than CoMo/Al2O3 in direct deoxygenation route and hydrodeoxygenation of phenol.