Selective hydrodesulfurization of model fluid catalytic cracking gasoline over sulfided Al2O3-supported Anderson heteropolyoxomolybdate-based catalysts

XMo6/Al2O3 catalysts were synthesized using XMo6-heteropolycompounds with Anderson’s structure (where X = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Al). The sulfided catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The catalysts were tested in hydrotreating of model FCC gasoline contained thiophene (1000 ppm of sulfur) and 1-hexene (36 wt%). The correlations between HDS/HYDO selectivity and characteristics of XMoS species depending on the nature of the heteroatom X in XMo6-heteropolycompound indicated the predominance of the electronic effect under the geometrical impact in the catalytic properties. It was found that to create a catalyst with high HDS/HYDO selectivity, reaching the mixed CoMoS active phase is the key requirement.