Effect of carbonization temperature on supported CoMo catalysts with honeycomb structure for thiophene hydrodesulfurization

Abstract The use of transportation fuels with high sulfur content can lead to the production of a large amount of sulfur oxides, which will have a serious impact on the earth’s ecological environment. Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) technology can effectively remove sulfur-containing compounds from transport fuels to ultra-low sulfur levels. In this paper, the supported cobalt-molybdenum HDS catalysts with honeycomb structure were prepared using activated carbon support derived from cypress wood as raw material. We explored how varying carbonization temperatures influence catalysts’ structural and chemical properties using low-temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption, The conversion efficiency of these HDS catalysts in transforming thiophene was examined using X-ray difraction(XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), within a high-pressure micro-fixed-bed reactor setup. Our observations revealed that all catalysts maintained their honeycomb-like structure, featuring both micropores and mesopores. This specialized pore arrangement helps to alleviate the resistance encountered during the mass transfer between large reactant molecules and the resulting products. The larger specific surface area promotes the dispersion of active ingredients in the catalyst, exposing more active sites. The maximum thiophene conversion over the CoMo-800 catalyst reached 93.28%.