The Influence of Phosphorus and Mo Loading on the MoS2 Phase Morphology and Performance of Sulfided Mo/Al2O3 Catalysts in HDO of Rapeseed Oil

The effect of Mo loading on the dispersion of sulfide phase and catalytic activity of MoS2/Al2O3 catalysts in the rapeseed HDO was studied. Five catalysts with Mo loading between 10 and 16 wt.% were prepared by impregnation of alumina with aqueous solutions containing MoO3, H3PO4 and citric acid, subsequent drying and high-pressure sulfidation. HDO activity of the MoS2/Al2O3 catalysts was enhanced with the Mo content increase from 10 to 12 wt.% and then was decreased with the further increase of Mo loading. The behavior of MoS2/Al2O3 and P-MoS2/Al2O3 catalysts with the same Mo loading (near 14 wt.%) was compared in the hydrodeoxygenation of rapeseed oil demonstrating the higher activity of P-promoted system. The modeling of XRD patterns with using of the Debye Function Analysis (DFA) gives the lower dXRD of the MoS2 particles in the P-MoS2/Al2O3 catalyst in comparison with MoS2/Al2O3 one. We proposed that P incorporation in the MoS2 slabs can result in a higher deformation of the supported MoS2 particles, which in turn could have been a reason of higher activity of P-MoS2/Al2O3 catalyst.