Supported molybdenum carbide catalysts: Structure-function relationships for hydrodenitrogenation

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:571942

Dolce, G M; Thompson, L T ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering

There continues to be a need for new catalysts that can efficiently upgrade petroleum crudes. Heavy oils and coal-derived liquids contain higher levels of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen than conventional light crudes, and therefore require more rigorous refining. Currently available commercial catalysts are not as active and efficient at hydrotreating these heavy oils compared to light crudes. Early transition metal carbides and nitrides have been shown to be active for the hydrotreatment of model compounds and petroleum crudes. In this paper the authors describe their investigations of the structural and compositional properties of {gamma}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-supported molybdenum carbides and efforts to correlate these properties with their pyridine and quinoline hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) activities. The HDN activities of the materials scaled linearly with the loading and oxygen chemisorptive uptake. Oxygen chemisorption results also suggested that the molybdenum carbide particles were highly dispersed and perhaps raft-like. Using temperature programmed desorption and infrared spectroscopy of carbon monoxide, they were able to identify two types of sites on the carbides; sites on top of the particle and sites at the perimeter. They have tentatively concluded that the most active sites for HDN were on top of the supported carbide particles.

• OSTI ID: 571942
• Report Number(s): CONF-961202--; ISBN 1-55899-358-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
02 PETROLEUM
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
COAL LIQUIDS
DENITRIFICATION
MOLYBDENUM CARBIDES
MORPHOLOGY
PETROLEUM
PYRIDINE
QUINOLINES