The role of MoS2 nano-slabs in the protection of solid cracking catalysts for the total conversion of heavy oils to good quality distillates

The total conversion of the oil barrel to good quality fuels and distillates has been an overriding goal in the oil refinery industry. Today, it is even more important to improve the effective use of the energy fossil reserves. The actual technologies still produce variable amounts of low quality fractions (e. g. fuel oil, bunker oil) or by-products (e. g. coke). The evolution of the slurry hydrocracking technology can open the way to achieve the objective. This technology was originally developed in Germany in the first half of the last century and reconsidered by several research groups in the past decades. The catalyst used in the slurry process is still constituted by the same materials developed by German scientists in the last century, i.e. bulk, crystalline, nano-sized iron, molybdenum or tungsten sulfide. We have demonstrated now that it is possible to improve the catalytic performances by combining the excellent hydrogenation, hydrodesulfurization and hydrodemetallation properties of dispersed MoS2 catalyst with those of a conventional cracking catalyst. This dual catalyst system demonstrates for the first time the ability of dispersed MoS2 particles to protect the cracking catalyst against rapid decay due to coke accumulation and metal poisoning.