Production of Clean Fuel Utilizing the Unsupported Sulfide Catalysts

The sulfur specification for diesel fuel has been tightened exponentially over the years. In this manuscript, the unsupported Ni-Mo(-W) sulfide hydrotreating catalysts were prepared to produce the clean diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur, nitrogen, and aromatics contents. The X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Low Temperature N-2 Adsorption (BET method), and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) were applied to characterize the as-prepared catalysts. The characterization results indicate that the unsupported Ni-Mo(-W) hydrotreating catalyst have high specific surface area, large pore volume, high MoS2 or WS2 stacking layers, and large MoS2 or WS2 crystal length. The catalysts were evaluated in the micro-reactor using FCC diesel fuel as the raw material. The evaluation results reveal that the unsupported Ni-Mo(-W) catalysts have excellent hydrogenation performance. Utilizing the unsupported Ni-Mo(-W) sulfide catalysts is an efficient method to produce clean diesel fuel.