Toluene hydrogenation at low temperature using a molybdenum carbide catalyst Original Research Article

A molybdenum carbide catalyst prepared with a novel methodology and its toluene hydrogenation activity tested at temperatures within 423–598 K and 2.76 MPa is here reported. Almost 100% hydrogenation was achieved at 473 K with this catalyst. The activation energy was 58.1 kJ/mol with a zero-order reaction for toluene concentration, illustrating a behavior comparable to that of noble metals. Additional catalyst formulations were tested and their activities compared between them. XRD and Raman characterization of the catalysts allowed identification of several species in the newly synthesized catalyst, namely fcc-Mo2C and MoO2.