NiMo supported acidic catalysts for heavy oil hydroprocessing

Large pore diameter Al2O3-SiO2 acidic mixed oxide supports were prepared by using homogeneous co-precipitation method. The acidic properties of supports (oxide) and supported catalysts (sulfided) were chemically probed with cumene cracking (HCR) into propane and benzene at atmospheric pressure and 400 °C. NiMo supported hydroprocessing catalysts activities were also evaluated with heavy Maya crude oil. The use of acidic support is to optimize yield of high octane gasoline components, i.e. selective cracking of complex crude oil molecule. The supported fresh and spent catalysts were characterized by means of N2 adsorption–desorption and SEM–EDX spectroscopic techniques. The results point out that deactivation takes place mainly at the entrance of pore due to coke deposition, while the depositions of vanadium and nickel sulfides mainly depend on the diameter of the pores. The results also indicated that the deactivation due to carbon deposition is carried out at initial hours of the crude oil processing. The large pore diameter catalyst contains higher amounts of deposited species, which are distributed proportionally along the extrudate radius, while for smaller pore diameter catalyst the deposition mainly occurs on the extrudate surface.