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Weakening Internal Diffusion Effect in Selective Hydrodesulfurization
Weakening Internal Diffusion Effect in Selective Hydrodesulfurization
Weakening Internal Diffusion Effect in Selective Hydrodesulfurization
Abstract
A simple method for preparation of presulfided eggshell CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 catalysts with sharp boundary is developed, through which the
eggshell thicknesses of Co and Mo could be easily regulated by controlling the impregnation time. According to the results characterized by
EDS, XRD, HRTEM and FT-IR of adsorbed CO, the active component structures, the nature and/or the amount of active sites on the eggshell
catalyst are similar to these on the uniform catalyst. The evaluation results of the catalytic performance in selective hydrodesulfurization (HDS)
of FCC gasoline show the presence of significant internal diffusion inhibition effect on HDS of S-compounds especially in the uniform catalyst.
Compared with uniform catalyst, the eggshell catalyst could remarkably reduce such an internal diffusion inhibition effect due to a shortened
diffusion path of the reactants, thus showing higher HDS activity and selectivity.
Key words
CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 ; eggshell catalyst; uniform catalyst; internal diffusion; hydrodesulfurization
Copyright©2012, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1003-9953(11)60354-X
Journal of Natural Gas Chemistry Vol. 21 No. 2 2012 195
3. Results and discussion tributions in the catalyst extrudates, and also the dimension-
less penetration across the particle is a function of impreg-
3.1. Eggshell catalysts nation time. Therefore, the eggshell thicknesses of Co and
Mo could be easily regulated by controlling the impregnation
Figure 1 showsthe effect of impregnation time on the im- time.
pregnation depth. Obviously, CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 catalysts with
sharp and deep eggshell profiles were prepared, and the im-
pregnation depth increased clearly with the prolonged impreg-
nation time. Meanwhile, in the impregnation process, the im-
pregnation depth is usually influenced by the impregnation
rate. According to the Washburn equation [3], the impreg-
nation rate was calculated from the slope of the linear fitting
of dimensionless penetration depth (ξ) against t1/2 data and
its value was about 0.016 mm/s1/2 .
Figure 2 shows the cross-sectional SEM images together
with Co and Mo line distribution profiles of Egg-0.2 and
Hom-U catalysts. Visibly, Co and Mo showed almost the
same distribution and mainly dispersed at surface layer over
Egg-0.2 catalyst, presenting an eggshell distribution. In com-
parison with that, Co and Mo distributions were very uniform
along the cross section of Hom-U catalyst.
According to the above analysis, we can conclude that the
diffusion rate is a key factor to determine the Co and Mo dis- Figure 1. Effect of impregnation time on impregnation depth
Figure 2. Co and Mo distributions of cross section of Egg-0.2 and Hom-U CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 catalysts extrudates by EDS analysis
Journal of Natural Gas Chemistry Vol. 21 No. 2 2012 197
3.2. Characterization of catalysts micrographs exhibited the well-known MoS2 slab-like struc-
ture. And the slab lengths and stacking numbers of MoS2
Figure 3 shows the XRD patterns of Egg-0.2 and Hom-U slabs of different catalysts were quantitatively compared
catalysts. All the samples displayed the similar characteristics based on at least ten micrographs including 250−300 slabs
of diffraction peaks to γ-Al2 O3 and no visible new diffraction taken from different parts of each catalyst, and the calculated
peaks were observed. It implied that Co and Mo species average layer number and length of supported MoS2 slabs are
were either completely amorphous or composed of small crys- summarized in Table 2. It was found that the predominant slab
tallites. Therefore, the active components were considered number and average length of MoS2 slabs of samples were
evenly distributed on the surface of the support, indicating that similar, and they did not show significant differences in the
one-step impregnation method to obtain presulfided eggshell dispersion or the morphology of MoS2 slabs.
CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 catalysts would not affect the dispersion of Table 2. Slab length and stacking number of the catalysts
the active components, which was also confirmed by HRTEM
Samples Average size (nm) Average stacking number
analysis. Egg-0.2 4.18 1.98
Hom-U 4.36 1.92
Figure 4. TEM images of Egg-0.2 and Hom-U catalysts Figure 5. IR spectra of CO adsorbed on Egg-0.2 and Hom-U catalysts
198 Bin Liu et al./ Journal of Natural Gas Chemistry Vol. 21 No. 2 2012
3.3. Catalytic performance test catalysts. Thus, the catalyst effectiveness factors, indicating
the intra-particle diffusion effect, were calculated according
The catalytic performances of presulfided Egg-0.2 and to the equation [11]: k = ηkintrinstic , where k and kintrinstic are
Hom-U CoMoS/γ-Al2 O3 catalysts are presented in Figure 6. the apparent and intrinsic reaction rate constants. Moreover,
With the increase of reaction temperatures, the total sul- intrinsic reaction rate constant was only related to the reaction
fur compounds removal activity increased noticeably. At temperature. So it was assumed that the eggshell and uni-
the same temperature, the eggshell catalyst (Egg-0.2) always form catalysts had the same intrinsic reaction rate constants
showed higher HDS conversion compared with that of the uni- under the same reaction conditions. The ratios of the catalyst
form catalyst (Hom-U), indicating that the substantial inter- effectiveness factors can be obtained by calculating the ratio
nal diffusion limitation in Hom-U catalyst may cause lower of the apparent reaction rate constants.
HDS activity. Similar results were also obtained by Chen In Table 3, the relative catalyst effectiveness factors for
et al. [11], who studied the intra-particle diffusion effect each group Ts removal over Egg-0.2 and Hom-U catalysts
on HDS of dibenzothiophenic compounds with full-size and are presented. Taking into account of first-order kinetics for
crushed NiMo/Al2 O3 hydrotreating catalysts. Therefore, the each group Ts, the values given are the ratios of the appar-
eggshell catalyst with a thin layer of active material supported ent reaction rate constants of the eggshell and uniform cat-
on the outer surface of the catalyst particle could shorten the alysts, and Hom-U catalyst was considered as the reference
diffusion path of the reactant and thus weaken the substan- catalyst. As seen in Table 3, the values increased with the
tial internal diffusion limitation in the uniform catalyst, which increasing reaction temperature, showing that the eggshell
induced higher HDS activity. However, as seen in Figure 6, catalyst could effectively reduce the internal diffusion at
Egg-0.2 and Hom-U catalysts showed almost the same olefins higher temperatures. That was because temperature had a
HYD conversion activity, implying that the internal diffusion greater impact on the intrinsic rate constant than that on the
resistance effect on HYD of olefins might be neglected. So, effectiveness diffusivity (De ), contributing to the increase of
it was possible to improve the HDS of gasoline by eggshell the Thiele modulus (φ), and thus led to much prominent in-
catalyst to obtain better selective HDS performance. ternal diffusion effect in uniform catalyst at higher temper-
atures. It was also observed that the highest values in Ta-
ble 3 were estimated for T, next appeared the values of MTs
followed by the values of DMTs, all of which were higher
than those of 3CTs and 4CTs showing the lowest values at
the same temperature. It could be explained as follows: the
intrinsic rate constant of different group Ts varied greatly,
while the differences in effectiveness diffusivity were mi-
nor because of relatively slight differences in molecular size
among all the Ts, and therefore the φ value of each group
Ts was mainly associated with the intrinsic rate constant of
different group Ts. That was to say, the Ts with higher sul-
fur removal rates, such as T and MTs, showed larger φ values
than those with larger steric effects, such as DMTs, 3CTs and
4CTs, indicating more severe internal diffusion effect, which
was consistent with the higher relative catalyst effectiveness
factor values. Hence, the eggshell catalyst could conspicu-
Figure 6. Catalytic performances of Egg-0.2 and Hom-U catalysts. Reaction
ously decrease the internal diffusion inhibition effect on HDS
conditions: hydrogen pressure of 2 MPa, gas to liquid ratio of 300 Nm3 /m3 ,
LHSV of 4 h−1 of Ts, and apparently the effect decreased in the order of
T>MTs>DMTs>3CTs>4CTs.
For FCC gasoline, it mainly contains sulfur compo-
Table 3. Relative catalyst effectiveness factors
nents of thiophenes [27,28] and the HDS activity of thio- for thiophenes hydrodesulfurization
phenes can be influenced by their structures, and therefore
t/ ◦ C
may be affected differently by internal diffusion. More- S-compounds
240 260 280
over, the effects of internal diffusion resistance on different T 1.451 1.591 1.802
structure thiophenes are still unclear. Based on the num- MTs 1.314 1.449 1.588
ber of substituent groups bonded to thiophene molecules, DMTs 1.195 1.365 1.479
all the thiophenes (Ts) could be divided into five groups: 3CTs 1.127 1.242 1.367
thiophene (T), methylthiophenes (MTs), dimethylthiophenes 4CTs 1.089 1.215 1.243
(DMTs), 3-carbons-alkylthiophenes (3CTs) and 4-carbons- Reaction conditions: hydrogen pressure of 2 MPa, gas to liquid ra-
alkylthiophenes (4CTs) [29]. We compared the catalyst tio of 300 Nm3 /m3 , LHSV of 4 h−1
effectiveness factors of each group Ts removal over the
eggshell and uniform catalysts, and it can be assumed that The catalyst selectivity factor (S) was calculated with a
the external transmission showed the same effect on the two ratio of the pseudo-second-order reaction rate constants for
Journal of Natural Gas Chemistry Vol. 21 No. 2 2012 199