Synthesis of Nanocatalyst for Hydrodesulfurization of Gasoil Using Laboratory Hydrothermal Rig

Abstract

This study presents a simple fabrication procedure for obtaining a nanocatalyst by homogeneously implanting CoMo within the structure of multiwall carbon nanotubes. The nanocatalyst efficiency was determined by applying the catalyst in a laboratory hydrothermal testing rig to remove sulfur from gasoil using various methods. The conventional catalyst (CoMo/Al₂O₃) was also used as a reference. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), high- resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) method were used to study the morphology and the structure of prepared samples, and the X-ray fluorescence technique (XRF) was used to determine the sulfur content in gasoil. After preparation, the nanocatalyst composite structure observed the formation of network structure between metal catalysts and CNTs, and almost all CoMo particles were homogeneously decorated within the bulk of CNTs. Experiments using nanocatalysts reveal better results than the conventional catalyst (CoMo/Al₂O₃) in removal of sulfur from gasoil. As a result, an improvement of about 10% (73.5% max. HDS) in hydrodesulfurization (HDS) over conventional catalyst was obtained with a 10 h contact time, 280 °C reactor temperature, 10 bar system pressure, and 2h⁻¹ space velocity of gasoil, which may be an optimum condition for removal of sulfur from gasoil within the conditions and design parameters of our experimental system.