Activated Carbons as Supports for Sulfided Mo-Based Catalysts Intended for the Hydroprocessing of Lipidic Feedstocks

The production of hydrocarbon-based biofuels has been the target of intense research worldwide. In this context, the core goal of the present work was to investigate the use of mesopore-rich activated carbons (ACs) as support for sulfided Mo-based catalysts intended for the hydroprocessing of lipidic feedstocks. Key issues of the work were that: unlike traditional inorganic supports, ACs are highly resistant to hydrolysis, which is a very important aspect in the hydroprocessing of lipidic feedstocks because water is abundantly produced during the process; the porosity of ACs can be tailored to give rise to a high mesopore content, which are important for improving the access of bulky triglyceride molecules to metallic active sites located inside the pores network. A systematic study on the effects of the preparation conditions on the properties and performance of the obtained catalysts was carried out. The highest hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activity was verified for the catalyst prepared through sequential deposition of Mo and Ni by wet impregnation. The prepared catalyst presented better performance for coconut oil HDO than an industrial sulfided NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst. Furthermore, the prepared catalysts presented good stability, provided the sulfidation degree was kept high. The obtained results evidenced that ACs have great potential to replace inorganic supports in sulfided Mo-based catalysts.