Decoration of Fe into the MoS₂ Matrix for Residual Oil Hydrogenation under Severe Operating Conditions

The Ni(Co)Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was widely used for residue hydrogenation but challenged by the increased expense of Ni/Co metal to some extent. Fe, which is adjacent to Ni/Co, was used as a promoter of MoS2 for residual oil hydrogenation. Mo7O246– polyoxometalate was used as a preassembled molecular platform for the doping of iron cation, ensuring the uniform dispersion of Fe and Mo elements on γ-Al2O3 support, which further contributed to the formation of uniform FeMoS active sites after sulfuration. The promoter Fe enhanced the efficiency of residual oil hydrogenation of MoS2, and the catalyst with the 1:3 Fe/Mo atomic ratio possessed the activity under the identical reaction condition, having 44.2 and 35.4% removal rates for sulfur and conradson carbon residue, respectively. Particularly, the product obtained by this catalyst possessed the lower content of hydrogen (11.65%), indicating the selectivity effect in hydrogenation. Actual residual oil was used as reaction feed, and our designed catalysts possessed good promotion in hydrogenation activity and selectivity. This research will expand on the ability to improve the residual oil hydrogenation activity and selectivity by constructing catalytic active sites of MoS2 using a cheap iron element.