Influence of phosphorus content on properties and performance of NiW nanocatalyst supported on activated red mud in atmospheric diesel hydrodesulfurization

Mitra Ebrahiminejad; Ramin Karimzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121485

Influence of phosphorus content on properties and performance of NiW nanocatalyst supported on activated red mud in atmospheric diesel hydrodesulfurization

J Hazard Mater. 2020 Feb 15:384:121485. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121485. Epub 2019 Oct 19.

Authors

Mitra Ebrahiminejad¹, Ramin Karimzadeh²

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Engineering Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran, Iran; Cracking and Catalysis Research Center, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran, Iran.
² Chemical Engineering Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran, Iran; Cracking and Catalysis Research Center, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: ramin@modares.ac.ir.

PMID: 31699482
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121485

Abstract

The influence of phosphorus promoter addition on structural properties and hydrodesulfurization activity of NiW nanocatalysts supported on activated red mud, called NiW/P-ARM, was studied at atmospheric pressure. Before red mud usage, it was treated by Pratt and Christoverson technique and then NiW/P-ARM nanocatalysts with different phosphorus loadings were prepared by impregnation technique. The prepared samples were characterized by XRF, XRD, FESEM, BET, FTIR and H₂-TPR analyses. Base on the obtained results, XRF analysis indicated that activation process remarkably decreased Ca and Na content in the red mud. XRD results indicated the high dispersion of the tungstate, nickel and active phase (NiWO₄) species on the surface of activated red mud support. FESEM analysis illustrated that all particles of NiW/P-ARM were less than 100 nm. TPR measurements revealed that phosphorus-promoted nanocatalysts had higher reduction potentials than nanocatalyst without promoter. The catalytic ability of synthesized nanocatalysts was investigated in a fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure and 380 °C using Iso diesel and light diesel as the reaction feeds. It was found that NiW/P-ARM with 1.5 wt.% prompter showed higher activity for hydrodesulfurization process and further addition of P promoter decreased the catalytic activity that may be due to the decrease in surface area or agglomeration particles.

Keywords: Activation process; Hydrodesulfurization reaction; NiW/P-ARM nanocatalyst; Phosphorus promoter; Red mud; Support.