Influence of CeO2 loading on the catalytic performance of CoNiMoS/CeO2–Al2O3 toward vacuum gas oil hydrotreatment

This work investigates the effect of CeO2 doping into the CoNiMoS/Al2O3 catalyst on the efficiency of heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) hydrotreatment. Particularly, two supports contain 10% and 25% CeO2 to Al2O3 were prepared by co-precipitation method. Metals were subsequently loaded onto these supports via impregnation technique. The produced catalysts had been then sulfided before introduction to the hydrotretment process. Structural characteristics of supports and catalysts were verified by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and N2-physiosorption technique. Obvious variations in both morphology and values of surface features could be detected via incorporation of ceria with alumina. The10%CeO2 doped catalyst could successfully attain high percentages of simultaneous hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation affinity: 94.8% and 95.45% respectively. This increased the catalytic activity, which had been 30% higher than of using alumina individually, could be attributed to the presence of ceria within the composition of support.